Perilous Times Are Here

Well, Brethren, Happy Sabbath once again. I apologize for not getting wired up a little earlier today.

A few weeks ago, another very terrible tragedy occurred in our country when a mentally disturbed 20-year-old man killed 26 people, mostly children, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. It's an event that certainly touched me that evening as my wife and I watched the news. She shed a few tears. We have grandchildren. We have grandchildren the age of the children that were killed in that elementary school. And those kids, of course, went out that day all excited about life, thinking they could go into a very safe environment. The last thing they expected was for that to be the last day of their innocent young lives. Since 1982, there has been at least 61 mass murders carried out with firearms across the United States unfolding in 30 states. So this is a national problem. From Massachusetts to Hawaii, this is a national issue that we have. And in most cases, the killers had obtained their weapons legally. So we face some serious issues of being a violent people, of being a very violent people. Of the 25 worst mass shootings that occurred in the entire world in the last 50 years, of those 25, 15 took place in the United States, in our nation. Of the 11 deadliest shootings in U.S. history, six have occurred the last six years, since the year 2007. We are a very violent people. In 2010, there were 12,969 murders in the United States. In the city of Chicago alone this year, that is one city, there has been over 500 homicides. That means that in Chicago, one city alone in the United States, an average of a Sandy Hook occurred every three weeks. Week after week after week after week. Yet that doesn't get much play on the news, does it? We are an extremely violent people. Unfortunately, where we are headed in the level of violence that we have and can expect to see in the future, was prophesied in the Word of God. Let's go to 2 Timothy 2 and verse 24. We'll pick it up here. 2 Timothy 22, beginning in verse 24. Paul's going to make a few comments to Timothy on how he was to deal with quarreling, and how he was to deal with opposition in the church. And then in that same context of quarreling and opposition, he's going to give Timothy a prophecy, a prophecy that you and I are beginning to live through at this very time in human history. Again, 2 Timothy 2 and verse 24.

It says, So a servant of Jesus Christ should not be argumentative, should not argue with people. They should be gentle. They should be someone who teaches, someone who is patient with people who are argumentative themselves. Verse 25. But Paul says that a servant has to deal with this situation in a gentle way, not arguing. He says, If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him, to do his will. So he says, if you've got this feeling that you have to argue all the time, that you have to be in everyone's face, that you have to be a know-it-all, he says, you have been taken by captive by the devil to do his will. So in context, Paul's telling Timothy that he would face opposition even within the church congregations, and he was told to deal with this patiently and with humility. Paul says, and by the way, while I'm on the topic of opposition and confrontation, he says, I want to give you a prophecy. And rather, in this prophecy that we're about to read is being fulfilled the very time that we live. Chapter 3, beginning in verse 1, he says, but know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. Can you think of anything more perilous than 20 beautiful, wonderful little children going to school, in elementary school one day, skipping into their class, thinking of this exciting day of learning that they have ahead of them, and literally being blown away? Some of them shot two or three times. Can we think of more perilous times than that? For men will be lovers of themselves. Narcissism will be at an all-time high. Lovers of money. Boasters, proud, blasphemers, they'll use God's name in vain. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Not appreciative for anything that they have. Unholy. Disrespecting God. Or the Bible, the Word of God. Unloving. Unforgiving. Slanderers. Without self-control. Brutal. Despisers of good. Traitors. Headstrong. Haughty. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And having a form of godliness but denying its power. Some of them will even go to church. They'll put on this facade of being religious people and believing in God. He says, from such people, turn away. So this is a prophecy that Paul gives us about the time that we are living in. I believe a number of things has brought us to this point in time. First of all, an expanding population. I'll give you an idea of what I mean. I was born in the year 1953, and there were 159 million Americans living in the United States in 1953. This year there will be 312 million Americans almost exactly double the population in my lifetime. Well, if you have a particularly dysfunctional culture like ours has evolved into, when you double the population you just have a whole lot more problems. Frankly, you have a whole lot more unstable people walking around in society just waiting for one small thing that set them off to commit an atrocity. So one of the things that has brought us to the point that we are today is that there are so many more people, and unfortunately so many more people who have been brought up in a society that does not value God or has godly values the last 50 years. Another thing that has brought us to where we are today is living in a post-Christian culture. In 1962 there were two court cases, in 1962 and 1963, in which the Supreme Court prohibited state-sponsored prayer in schools as a result of two cases in 1962 and 1963.

Now someone may say, well, those prayers were shallow, anyway they were just recited, those prayers were meaningless. That didn't mean much to those kids. Well, maybe the prayer didn't, but I'll tell you something that did mean something to those kids. No matter what they weren't or were being taught at home, once a day those kids were being stopped and saying, there is a higher power.

Whether you understand or believe in these words or not, we stop, we bow our heads, and we acknowledge an authority beyond ourselves. We acknowledge a supreme deity that controls this universe and controls our lives. And if nothing else, that was reminded to children day after day as their school days began. I'm young enough or old enough, depending on how you want to define it, to remember saying prayers in school in my early years of elementary school as a small child. Then in 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom in Kentucky was unconstitutional.

So now you weren't to mention God, of course, in prayer. You weren't to have prayer. Now we were to remove the Ten Commandments from our school buildings. And many of our courthouses no longer have the Ten Commandments, which may be appropriate since there's usually so much lying that goes on in the court cases anyway. But the point is that we have taken God and removed him out of our culture and our society because we are ashamed of him as a people. I think another thing that has brought us to this point in time is our cultural glorification of violence.

If you have a teenager who's into video games, just take five minutes and see the reality of some of these video games are unbelievable. I mean, they are like simulations that the United States military uses to teach you to blow people away. You want to find out what has happened to our society. Not that I encourage you to do this, but at least take a look at the evening programming on HBO or Showtime, one of the cable networks. And you will see movies that have gratuitous violence in which body parts and blood is flowing and hitting everything. You'll see gratuitous sex. You'll see rampant drug use. You will see a glorification of the very kinds of things that have brought us to the point of where we are today as a people. Another thing that I think has brought us to this point in time is social media. I am stunned by bloggers and others and the narcissism that has increased over the use of social media. It just staggers me that a complete imposol who can't tie their shoelace is suddenly an expert on theology, politics, car repair, plumbing, whatever. Simply because they have an opinion and now they have an access for people to read them. And people comment on their ignoramus views and they feel good. They feel emboldened. I'll write some more. I'll tell everybody how little I know about this topic. And they receive more comments. And all it does is feed the fuel into the fire. And again, the level of narcissism in our culture has exploded due to the misuse of social media. These are some of the things that I think have brought us to this point in time that Paul talks about here in 2 Timothy.

What we are experiencing as a violent culture was prophesied thousands of years ago by the prophets of God who were called to reveal His word to us. I'd like to take a look at some of these prophecies today to apply them to what's occurring now.

And sadly, take a look at what we can also expect as this is ratcheted up in the future and enters another level just before the day of the Lord and the tribulation. So let's begin by going to one of the minor prophets, the Book of Hosea. We'll go to Hosea 4 beginning in verse 1. Hosea, chapter 4, beginning in verse 1. Hosea was a prophet who wrote to the northern tribes approximately 800 to 750 B.C.

And this prophecy from Hosea was not only relevant for His time, but for the modern nation of Israel as well. Hosea, chapter 4, beginning in verse 1.

He says, So God says, Blood shed upon bloodshed. Remember some of the statistics I read earlier? How many murders there were in the United States in 2010? 12,996. This year alone in just the city of Chicago, 500 homicides.

Blood shed upon bloodshed. Therefore, as a result of this, and a curse that's beginning to occur on our nation, therefore the land will mourn.

And everyone who dwells there will waste away with all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Even the fish of the sea will be taken away. There's going to be ecological disaster as the curses from the day of the Lord begin to occur upon this nation.

Verse 4, He says, Your people want to argue about religious principles. Well, I'm not sure the Ten Commandments are valid today. I think all you need to do is just be kind of a good person in order to get to heaven.

Everyone has an opinion. Everyone is smarter, knows more about God than the priests do, than knows whose responsibility it is to have a religious office. He says, So your people are like those who contend, who argue, who want to debate God's law and debate about what God says with religious leaders.

Therefore you shall stumble in that day. The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. He says, I'm going to take away all blessings. You're going to be in utter darkness. You are going to stumble. The religious leaders are going to stumble, and I'm going to destroy the nation. That's what he means when he says, I will destroy your mother. I'm going to destroy your government. The complete system is going to collapse.

Verse 6, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me, because you have forgotten the law of your God. What is the law of your God? Well, he kind of summed up ten of them in the first couple of verses that we read.

He said, there's no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. That kind of covers the first four of what we call the Ten Commandments. And then he says, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery. Why are all these being done? Because of covetousness. We've just listed all ten of God's Ten Commandments in the first couple of verses of these scriptures that we've read.

He says, because you've forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me. And that's what happens when you have a diseased, dysfunctional culture. When you have more people, you just simply have more problems. You have problems that are so deep that they overwhelm the system.

They overwhelm the safety net. The nation cannot deal with it. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame. They, that is the religious leaders, eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. So they play off the shame and guilt of the people. Just send me money. Just send another offering to the glory, tabernacle, revival we have here. And God can forgive you of your sins. So even the religious leaders are taking advantage of the situation of people's shame and guilt to take money out of them. Verse 9, and it shall be like people, like priests. Whereas the priests are supposed to uphold the values and pull everyone up to higher values. Those are the values of God's commandments the priest had degenerated to the point where they're just like the people. They're no longer leading. So I will punish them for their ways and reward them for their deeds, for they shall eat but not have enough. And how many Americans literally today are eating themselves to death. And the diseases that are associated with obesity and diabetes and other things, we're lonely, we eat. We feel unfulfilled, we eat. We're depressed, we eat. We eat, we eat, we eat. We gain in bulk more and more and more, but we still don't have enough. There's still a hole in our hearts. There's still an emptiness inside. It says that they may commit adultery and not increase because they have ceased from obeying the Lord. Harlotry, wine, and new wine and slaves. The heart. So Hosea confronts Israel regarding the degeneration of the society that he lived in. Just to recap a few things from these verses. It's a society that has lost a knowledge or a respect for God. This knowledge of God. And when you have a culture, a society that acknowledges God, like the Declaration of Independence did, you have a society which has a foundation of civility and rule of law and order. And when you remove God from it, then you no longer have civility. You have people acting like animals. You no longer have a rule of law. You have people thinking they can make their own laws. Laws apply to everyone else. They don't apply to me.

And instead of having an orderly society, you have what we have today. You have a society of chaos. Another thing the prophet brings out is the Ten Commandments have been forgotten. And every one of them is broken routinely, including adultery, lying, stealing, killing, and coveting. If you don't believe me, just read any typical front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer any morning. You will see every one of these in virtually every article in the front page.

As a result of this condition, God will destroy the entire nation. And the end result will be national humiliation and living in a wasteland. And there's coming a time when this nation will collapse from within, economically, socially. And this nation will fall and will become a wasteland. And this will occur during what the Bible calls the Day of the Lord and the Great Tribulation. Let's take a look at Hosea now, chapter 7, and verse 8. If you will turn back just a few chapters. Chapter 7.

The prophet makes a few statements regarding Ephraim, which was one of the leading tribes. Ephraim here represents the entire North, the entire nation of Israel, even though we know in a modern sense it represents the United Kingdom, what became known as Great Britain. And United Kingdom, Ephraim was a leader among the tribes and symbolically represented all of Israel. It says here, beginning in verse 8, Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples.

What does that mean? It says, Ephraim has gone to non-Christian and secular cultures and said, how can I learn from you? How can I borrow from your non-Christian culture and make that our way of life? How can I forget about God and go to a secular culture and begin to develop laws and attitudes that are wrapped around a secular culture, one that already has rejected God? It says, Ephraim is a cake unturned. That means half burnt and half raw. The original Hebrew is a cake that has not been turned, meaning it's blackened on one side and it's still raw on the other side. It's not fit to be used for anything productive. You can't eat it. You can't consume it or use it for anything of value. It is totally unproductive.

Aliens have devoured its strength. I think we understand the fact that our national debt is crushing us. And a certain percent of our national debt is owned by other foreign nations. Not a huge percent, in all fairness, but a certain amount of our national debt is owned by foreign nations. The two largest foreign owners of our national debt are China and Japan.

But what it really means here, when it talks about aliens have devoured his strength, is that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which I might add were borrowed to pay for those wars, they have depleted our wealth. They have brought us to the point that we are today. So aliens have devoured his strength, but he does not know it. Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him.

Ephraim is growing old as an empire. Ephraim is declining. Ephraim is going down and declining in strength and power. Yet he does not know it. And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, but they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this.

Ephraim also is like a silly dove without sense. Here you're going down the drain. You have 16 trillion dollars of national debt and you pretend like there's no problem. How silly! How goofy! How more ridiculous could you be as a nation to know that you were being consumed in debt?

And we'll just create more programs. We'll just spend more money than ever before. We'll just continue to grow and expand our debt.

He says, Ephraim is a silly dove without even common sense. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria. We'll be peacemakers in the world. We'll go to Egypt and help them to establish a great democracy. How well did that work?

Through our negotiations with other nations, we'll just play and pretend like we're the world's policemen. We'll be peacemakers around the world. Verse 12, wherever they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down. Like birds of the air, I will chastise them according to what their congregation has heard.

I'm going to read this from the New Century version. It says, Israel mixes with other nations. He is like a pancake cooked only on one side. Foreign nations have eaten up his strength, but he doesn't know it. Israel is weak and feeble like an old man, but he doesn't know it. Israel's pride will cause their defeat. They will not turn back to the Lord their God or look to him for help in all of this.

I wanted to make a few comments on something that was released in the news on December 10th that you may have caught. Maybe you did, maybe you didn't. It was something called the National Intelligence Report. Did anyone hear about that on December 10th, the National Intelligence Report? This was a 139-page report laying out the future of the world.

The National Intelligence Council, who created this report, is an official part of the United States government. It supports the United States Director of National Intelligence in his role as head of the intelligence community. The officers of the council are drawn from government, academia, and the private sector.

They are experts at what they do. They released a report on December 10th entitled, Global Trends 2030, Alternative Worlds. Again, this is from an official department of the United States government. The report paints a bleak picture of what they call a post-unipolar world. Here are some of the things they say in this report. They see the world coming by 2030. How far away is that? 17 years? Right? A world where growing populations, merging borders, and national disaster open the door to chaos, and no one country is capable of stepping in to restore order. Here's how the report explains it.

It says at one time in the world there were two superpowers, the United States and the USSR. Both had the power to end life as we know it. Neither had used their power for such a dastardly end. But instead, they existed face-to-face, as it were, each stockpiling weapons and keeping the other in check. Until eventually, the first one to go bankrupt was the USSR. What became of the USSR? Well, it went bankrupt. It blew apart. Many of the ethnic peoples that were around or part of the USSR all became independent nations, and the only thing left is Mother Russia. As a great empire, Russia is finished. So desperate, the only thing they can do to get attention these days are signing laws affecting whether Russian children can be adopted in the United States. It's how pathetic of a nation that they've become. And here's what the report says. Because of what occurred to the USSR, they couldn't keep up any longer, and the US emerged as the lone superpower. And it says, in 1991, we became what they call a unipolar world. And from that point on until now, the US refined its image as a peacekeeper and, at times, as a peacemaker. So far, so good. We understand that history. But according to the National Intelligence Council, those days are over. It predicts a world where unipolarity fades like the setting sun, and all of us embark on a brave new world where the world's policeman is going to be sorely missed because there will no longer be a world's policeman. The report outlines an economic realignment in which the US and Japan are eclipsed by China before the year 2030. This is what the report says. From the US government, it says here that we will be eclipsed by China before the year 2030 even arrives. Continuing, it says China will surpass the United States economically a few years before 2030, and regional players such as Colombia, India, Nigeria, and Turkey will become increasingly important to global economy. And it says, at this time, power will shift. That's their words. Power will shift from North America and Europe to an Asia whose gross domestic product, population, military spending, and technological investment will surpass the West's by the year 2030. Now, this is the world that we may see occur in some of our lifetimes. Now, frankly, by that time, I'll be a very old man and probably be drooling over myself in a wheelchair, but this is the world that my children and my grandchildren will inherit. And they use the phrase that the United States will fall from being a superpower to just one among equals. From a superpower to one among equals. That's the role that the United States will play. In a world, according to this report, that could occur less than 20 years from now. Let's go to the prophet Micah, Micah 7, beginning in verse 1. Because I think that I have a moral obligation to at least give you a foretaste of how bad it's going to be.

How bad our culture yet is going to be. What's going to happen is that our political system will continue to be corrupt. It will continue to be dominated by people of all political persuasions who are morally bankrupt. Eventually, our nation will be depleted from its wealth, and it will become a police state, a totalitarian form of government in which the middle class will totally disappear, and the rich and wealthy will prey upon everyone else. That's unfortunately the kind of world that we have to look forward to. Micah 7, beginning in verse 1. Micah the prophet writes, and by the way, he lived in Judah, but he wrote to both the house of Israel and Judah. He was a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. He wrote about the same time he was a little younger than Isaiah was. He says, Woe is me, for I am like those who gather summer fruits, like those who glean vintage grapes. There is no cluster to eat of the first right fruit which my soul desires. The faithful man has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among them. Anyone who had values or decent morals has either been imprisoned or gone underground in hiding. For a feared or afraid of their lives are in danger. It says, They all lie and wait for blood. Every man hunts his brother with a net that they may successfully do evil with both hands. The prince asks for gifts. The political leaders, you want me to do something for you? Grease my palm. You want to get anything done? I only accept Benjamin Franklin's. No other presidents on the pictures, please. It says, The judge seeks a bribe, and so much for justice. And the great man, the so-called business leader or the celebrities that we idolize and worship today, and the great man utters his evil desire so they scheme together. It's a collusion. It's a collusion to destroy the middle class of this country. It's a collusion for a few percentage to control and own everything. That is, the politicians, the legal system, and those who are celebrities. It says, The best of them is like a briar. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchman and your punishment comes. Now shall be their perplexity. Verse 5, and it'll get to this point when we become a police state. Do not trust in a friend. Do not put your confidence in a companion. Guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom. Be careful of what you even say to your wife, because she may report you. For a son dishonors father, daughter rises up against her mother, daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own household. Here's what the prophet said. He says, Therefore, aside from all the stuff that's going on, aside from all the negativity that's occurring in the world, I will look to the Lord, I will wait, for the God of my salvation and my God will hear me. All I have to do is wait for this to pass, because there's something following it that's very beautiful and very wonderful. We know that is the kingdom of God. He says, All I have to do is wait for the God of my salvation to endure it, to maintain my values, to do the things that I need to do, and just wait it out. So the prophet warns us of what we can expect to see in the future, massive corruption of our political system and a collusion of government to deplete the wealth of the nation. In a future police state, you won't even be able to trust the members of your own family. Now let's go to Isaiah chapter 59. Take a look at a prophecy from Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 59, beginning in verse 1.

Isaiah wrote, or as the British say, Isaiah wrote, Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save.

Nor is ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. This is Isaiah's prophecy to the nation. It's not that God has a hearing problem. It's not that God can't intervene. It's because as a nation, our sins have brought a curse on us, and God refuses to listen to a people who have rejected him.

He refuses to listen to a nation that mentioned him three times in his Declaration of Independence and said that this God, this being, gave us the right for our liberties and freedoms, and then 200 years later rejected him, rejected him from their schools, rejected him from their culture, and that has brought a curse on us as a people and as a nation. Continuing here, verse 3, For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity.

Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered perversity. Again, just take some Google searches, and you will see some of the most vile, disgusting human language possible on certain parts of the Internet, and certainly in many of the movies that are on so-called cable premium TV channels. No one calls for justice, nor does any plead for truth. They trust in empty words and speak lies.

They conceive evil and bring forth iniquity. They hatch vipers' eggs, that is deceitful, and they weave the spider's web. That means they lie continually. He who eats of their eggs dies. In other words, anyone who listens to their deceit, who believes it, dies of dying, and from that which is crushed, a crushed viper breaks out. Their webs will not become garments, you can see through their lies, nor will they cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Did someone make haste to shed innocent blood in that elementary school a few weeks ago? You bet they did. Their thoughts are the thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths. The way of peace they have not known. Emotionally, they don't have peace. And so they act out the violence that they have living inside of themselves.

And there is no justice in their ways. They've made themselves crooked paths. Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. Therefore, justice is far from us, nor does righteousness overtake us.

We look for light, but there is darkness. For brightness, but we stumble and walk in blackness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at noon day as a twilight. We are as dead men in desolate places.

What's that theme in the movie, The Green Mile? Dead man walking. Dead man walking. That's what this nation is. Dead man walking. For we are as dead men in desolate places. We all growl like bears. Just watch some so-called political analysis on Fox News or CNN. You can't listen to an intelligent conversation because they're shouting over each other all the time. The nation becomes so partisan and so fragmented, people don't listen to each other. All they do is growl and shout over each other on the evening talk shows. They moan sadly like doves. Oh, all our social problems.

What are we going to do? Oh, my. We look for justice, but there is none for salvation. But it is far from us. So as a nation, we grope in darkness because we have rejected our God. And our so-called political leaders grope for answers. But they can't find any answers. The only things they ever do are to pass expensive, ridiculous laws to try to solve our deep, lingering social problems. And I will give you a classic example of something that began, interestingly enough, about the same time that we decided that prayers should not be in public schools.

And I lived through this. In the mid-1960s, President Lyndon Johnson declared, drumroll please, a war on poverty. Well, since that time, federal, state, and local governments have spent about 15 trillion, that's with a T, 15 trillion dollars to fight this war with numerous government programs and benefits. Since that time, 15, by the way, our national debt is 16 trillion dollars right now. So what have been the results? Well, the percentage of poor people in 1965 was roughly the same percentage of poor people who live in America today.

After spending 15 trillion dollars, that's with a capital T, that money basically has been wasted. What our 15 trillion dollars has bought us is institutional and generational poverty now entering the fourth generation. As a society, I want to emphasize this, as a society, we as individual Christians and as a nation have a moral obligation to help the poor. I don't want anyone to misunderstand what I am saying. We have a moral obligation, biblically and as a culture, to help the poor. So what went wrong? What went wrong is that since 1965 we fought the war on poverty with all the wrong generals, all the wrong tactics, and all the wrong weapons.

So here we are now spending a trillion dollars a year to continue to lose this war on poverty. This is an example of groping like the blind and stumbling at noon day that the Prophet talked about. I might also add, I haven't looked statistically, but I'm sure that most of those 500 primarily men who died in Chicago this year were beneficiaries of the programs of the war on poverty. Their mothers probably were beneficiaries of the war on poverty.

Their grandmothers were probably beneficiaries of the war on poverty. And they are dead because we fought the war with the wrong generals, with the wrong ideas, and with the wrong weapons. And you reap what you sow in a culture. And this is just an example of a nation in which we grope for a wall like the blind. There are no answers. We stumble at noon day as if it's darkness.

We walk as dead men, and we growl like bears. We live in a very sad culture. And one of the things I'd like to caution us on is not to become envious of the wrong kind of people in our culture. And that's very easy to do. Because what do you see when you turn on the television?

Or you look in the magazine, you see people enjoying the good life. Don't you? You see celebrities who live with people, and celebrities who have been in their fourth marriage, or celebrities who are living with a same-sex partner, or a dog, or whatever.

And they're all happy, and they've got plenty of money, and they've got perfectly white teeth, and they're pictures of them, and their swimming pool is in the background, and their mansion on Bel Air, they're talking about in an article, and it just seems like they get all the breaks, and all the good things happen to them, and that they're actually rewarded for living that kind of a lifestyle.

It seems like they're actually rewarded for doing that. Psalm 73, verse 1. Let's take a look at Psalm 73, verse 1.

Even the psalmist struggled sometimes with this, because even back in the times of ancient Israel, it seemed like the diseased and the dysfunctional were the ones that were being rewarded and blessed, and living the good life while everyone else was struggling. The psalmist writes in Psalm 73, verse 1, He says in verse 2, But as for me, my feet had almost slipped. He said, you know, I looked at these people, and it looks like they're doing just fine. It looks like they're enjoying the good life. They're getting recognition. They're making all kinds of money. They're always married to someone 30 years younger than they are. It looks like they're just having a ball in life. He says, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the boastful when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pangs in their death, but their strength is firm. He said, they are not in trouble as other men, nor are they plagued like other men. You know, their money, it just seems like you can buy them out of problems. They kill someone, hire a prominent defense lawyer, they get off from murder. They get away with murder. They get away with all of these things that would cause you and I serious jail time. It just doesn't seem fair, does it? He says, nor are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride serves as their necklace. Violence covers them like a garment, and their eyes bulge with abundance. They have so much money, it's shocking. It makes your eyes bulge out of your head. They have more than heart could wish. They scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression, meaning they proudly hurt other people, and they don't even show any shame for it. They speak lawfully. They set their mouth against the heavens. Their tongue walks through the earth. Therefore his people return here, and the waters are a full cup drained by them.

In other words, they have no respect for God. They stomp on God's people. They stomp on the righteous. Verse 11, and they say, how does God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? What God? How does he know what I'm doing? How can you prove to me there's a judgment day? Why should I have an obligation to live differently in life?

And, brethren, as we see this going on in our culture, and it's going to continue and get even worse than worse, don't be duped by our modern culture into this kind of an attitude or way of life. Don't be duped into accepting it, to thinking that it's normal or okay. Don't be envious of these people, because their only reward is in this present world, and it's going to be for a very short period of time. Your reward is for eternity, with riches and abundance and fulfillment that cannot be matched by anything else. So don't become envious. Don't become resentful. Don't question God when you see, seemingly, that these people are rewarded and live the good life as we struggle to pay our utility bills, as we struggle to make ends meet in our own lives. Don't allow yourself to become envious or jealous of the lifestyles that you see other people living. Well, what can we do? What should we do? Knowing the kind of events that we've talked about that we're living in these last days, that Paul mentioned in Timothy, what should and could we do, knowing that these events are occurring, and yet what will happen even in the future when this nation collapses and descends into a police state? Well, I have three things I'd like to mention of what we could and should do. Three things I would like to talk about today. And here's number one. Continue living productively. No matter what's going on in the world, continue living productively. Let's take a look at Luke 12 and verse 40. If you'll turn there with me. Luke 12 and verse 40. There are some people, when this kind of environment would become reclusive, who would just hide away in a cave somewhere. But you know, something hiding in a cave I can't see. It's light. Something that is reclusive cannot have a powerful influence on me. If it hides itself, if it has a bunker mentality, that's not what Jesus Christ wants us to have. Luke 12, beginning in verse 40, after Jesus taught a parable to disciples. He says, therefore, you also be ready. He's talking about His return. For the Son of Man is coming in an hour you do not expect. Then Peter said to Him, Lord, do you speak this parable only to us or to all people? And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom His master will make him ruler over his household to give them their portion of food in due season? So He says, who's the faithful and wise steward who's going to get the reward? That reward that lasts for eternity. Verse 43, blessed is that servant whom the master will find so doing when he comes. That servant is productive. That servant continues to be a light. That servant continues to serve. That servant continues to grow in every one of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. That servant continues to examine themselves and to root out the works of the flesh that they see still lingering in their lives. Verse 44, truly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all that he has. But if that servant says in his heart, my master's delaying is coming and begins to beat the male and female servants and to eat and to drink and be drunk. That servant just slacks off and says, you know, I'm not sure God's coming in my lifetime. I'm going to lower my values. I'm going to compromise. I'm going to stop growing. I'm going to stop being productive. I'm just going to sit here and eat and eat and eat and drink more. Drink to the point of being drunk. I'm going to verbally abuse people. I'm going to shoot my mouth off and be offensive and abuse people. He says in verse 46, the master of that servant will come on a day he is not looking for him.

And at an hour when he is not aware, and he will cut him in two and appoint him as a portion with the unbelievers. You know what the portion of the unbelievers is? It's called the lake of fire. That's not very pleasurable, is it? Verse 47, and that servant who knew his master's will and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For every one to whom much is given, from him much will be required, and whom much has been committed of him, he will ask more. So according to how much knowledge and understanding that we have, we are held accountable for the things that we know. To give you an example, I understand that the Sabbath day should be observed on Saturday. I am held accountable for that. Someone else may not understand the Sabbath as on the Saturday. They're ignorant. God hasn't revealed that to them. Their minds haven't been opened. God will not hold them to the same degree and judgment as he does me regarding violating the Sabbath, if I break it. To whom much is given, from him much will be required. And the more you know, and the more God opens your mind, and the more you understand about God's truth, the greater the degree of accountability that we have for what we know. So it's very important that we continue so doing when he comes, until he comes to this earth.

The Master's will is that we live productive lives of growth and service until he returns. We can't bury our heads in the sand. We cannot become a new breed of Sabbatarian Amish and create our own communities and go back to horses and wagons and take electricity out of our houses, as if somehow that would make us more godly or righteous. We can't hide in caves and be the kind of light that Jesus Christ expects us to be. So again, that was point number one, and point number one is continue living productively in spite of what's going on in the world.

Here's point number two. Pray for the protection of your family and others. Pray for the protection of your family and others. We know from the book of Hebrews that God has what the author of the book of Hebrews, whom I think is Paul, says are ministering angels that are sent to minister to those who are heirs of salvation.

The world sometimes calls them guardian angels, not a term that we use, but they are obviously spirits that have been given the task of protecting us of being around us. And I would like to say that some of us in our lifestyles have nearly exhausted those ministering angels in our lives. They're trying to catch their breath. But we need that kind of protection. We need divine protection in our lives. Galatians chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. Galatians chapter 1 and verse 1. We need to pray every day for protection. Every day I pray for key things for my immediate and extended family. And one of those things is that they be protected because we do live in a very evil and violent world. Galatians chapter 1 verse 1.

Paul writes here, an apostle, not from men or through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised him from the dead, to all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia. He says, grace to you. He says, I wish you God's favor, God's pardon, I wish you the good things, the gifts from God, and peace. That is a lack of violence. That's a lack of intimidation. That's a lack of anxiety, a lack of fear. Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

I'd also like to remind you that Jesus taught his disciples in what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. He said, deliver us from the evil one.

That's a deity, he told him. When you pray, make this part of your prayer. Today, Lord, deliver us from the influences of the evil one.

And the evil one has a lot of surrogates walking around in our culture today, a lot of mentally disturbed and other people who just the slightest provocation will make them go off and commit terrible acts of violence.

And we need divine protection from God Almighty from those situations.

Brethren, we need to pray for each other daily and for God's ministering angels to be around us and protect us everywhere we go and with everything that we do.

So the second was pray for protection for your family and for others.

And the third is to use wisdom and discretion. Use wisdom. There's a part that we have to play. Use wisdom and discretion. Let's go to Matthew 10, verse 16. Matthew 10, verse 16.

Comment to Jesus told the disciples when he was sending them out on a mission.

You and I are also on a mission in our lives.

Jesus said to them, Behold, I send you out a sheep in the midst of wolves.

In other words, you don't have many defensive measures. You're just like a sheep. But I'm sending you out to a lot of predators who would just like to shred you and tear you apart and have you for lunch.

Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. I'm going to read this from the new international version.

It says, I'm sending you out as sheep among wolves. Therefore, be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves. To be wise or shrewd as a snake means to not go out and look for trouble. I've got snakes around my yard, and unless they usually are provoked, they try to get out of the way.

They see me coming. They see this big galooka walking up to them. They start slithering away into the grass. I'm out of here. They don't hang around. They don't try to provoke me. They try to get out of the way. They don't go out looking for trouble. And we should not put ourselves in a situation to become an easy target or a victim in a situation.

Withdraw. Be shrewd as a snake. Coil back. Get out of the line of fire. Don't get involved in things in which you can become an easy victim or target. If you're going into a dangerous area, go with another person. Use wisdom in where you park your car. If you go into an area, park your car under a light. If you go to the shopping mall, park as close as you can to the door of the shopping mall and hopefully close to a light. Just begin to use precautions. Be wise. Be shrewd in your daily dealings. I'm not suggesting we become paranoid. I'm not saying we have to become compulsive. I'm not saying that we should live in fear because perfect love casts out fear.

What I'm saying is that we just need to be wise. And we need to be aware of our world and aware of the surroundings that we live in. Take precautions in how you live and be smart in dealing with potential violence. I'm sure most of you locked your doors. I think I've told you this story before. Growing up as a kid, I grew up in Cleveland, East 148th Street, and St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland.

I want to tell you something. I lived in a neighborhood that had...we lived next door to a German immigrant family. Across the street was an Irish immigrant family. On the other side were folks...we had lots of Appalachians who had come from Kentucky and Tennessee and West Virginia, all coming up to work in the factory jobs in Cleveland. The street over were African Americans. And until 1960, we never locked our doors because we didn't live in fear.

We left our doors open all the time, all night, because there was no fear of violence. We lived in the world of all these transients and didn't have one spot of fear and feeling a need to lock our doors. That's the kind of society that I grew up in as a small child. And it wasn't until 1960 that we heard that there was a house broken into down the street that we began to lock our front door with a skeleton key.

That's how degenerate our society has come in just one human lifetime. But we have to be wise, and we have to take precautions. It's a good approach to have at home, here at services, and that's why we've done some of the things that we're doing, and even while traveling, if you're traveling out of town, do things that are wise in where you stay and how you park your car and where you go. One final scripture today. I didn't want to, even though we have difficult days ahead of us, I didn't want to leave us today only thinking about the coming events that are happening now and how terrible and tragic they are, and they're certainly going to get a lot worse.

I didn't want to leave us with that environment, or worse yet, what's going to eventually become known as the day of Lord or the Great Tribulation. But I wanted our final scripture to be one of hope, the one to show us why it's important to endure, what lies beyond the tragic events and the continuing violence that we are going to see in our world.

Let's go to Isaiah 60 and verse 15. Isaiah 60 and verse 15. This is a prophecy regarding the city of Jerusalem. It's also, by the way, symbolic of what it's like to be transformed into a spirit being. But I'm going to use the perspective of a people that had been punished by God, and that Israel will be, into one that experiences God's grace and restoration. Isaiah 60 and verse 15. It says, Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you, I will make you, this is God speaking of the future and the world tomorrow, an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.

You will drink the milk of the Gentiles, the milk of the breast of kings, and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Instead of bronze, I will bring gold. Instead of iron, I'll bring silver. So I'm going to upgrade the metals that you have, the precious metals.

Instead of wood bronze and instead of stones, iron. And I will make your officers peace. Instead of the prince who says, grease my palm. Instead of the judge who looks for a bribe, it says, I will make your officers peace. And your magistrates righteousness, not scumbags, but righteousness.

Violence shall no longer be heard in your land. No longer will 500 young men and women be murdered in just one city of a nation in one year. Violence shall no longer be heard in your land, neither wasting nor destruction within your borders. Something else the United States has to look forward to. But you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise.

The sun shall no longer be your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give light to you. But the Lord will be to you an everlasting light. And your God your glory. Your sun shall no longer go down, nor shall your moon withdraw itself, for the Lord will be your everlasting light. And the days of your morning shall be ended.

Also your people shall be righteous. They shall inherit the land forever. The branch of my planting and the work of my hands that I may be glorified. A little one, a brand new baby child, can look forward to going in a safe environment to school. And because there will be no disease, because there will be none of the evils that exist in our world today, that little child will become the descendant of a thousand.

And a small one, a strong nation, I the Lord will hasten it in its time. So, brethren, in spite of the fact that we live in a very dark world today, let us continue to be lights in this world of darkness. Allow the good news of the gospel message to be seen in the way that we conduct ourselves in a dying and in a very dysfunctional culture. Let's not act like chicken little. Let's not become exclusive.

Let's not live in caves. On the other hand, let's not become calloused to the world's evils. Lights don't have to make a lot of noise. They simply light the way, especially when they're a floodlight. So I encourage you, wherever you live, in whatever environment that you're in, to become God's floodlight.

To make a difference. To dare to be different. Then stand out among the crowd as one who demonstrates and reflects the power of God's Holy Spirit through the way that we act and the way that we conduct ourselves everywhere we go in whatever we do. Have a wonderful Sabbath.