Prophecies of the Church in the End Time

Is there anybody here who is not interested in what the future holds? I think we're all interested in that and wanting to know what the future holds. We'd like to know what's going to happen tomorrow. We'd like to know what's going to happen next week or next month or within this coming year. We'd like to know what's going to happen in the world. We'd like to know what's going to happen in the nation. We'd like to know what's going to happen in our lives. And God does give us a very broad outline of Bible prophecy, and through prophecy does reveal what the future holds.

And today I would like to focus on one particular aspect of Bible prophecy, and that is prophecies of the church in the end time. And I'll state up front there are many, many prophecies. We will only have time to cover a few here. But what does the future hold for the church of God? That's a question I think we would all like an answer to. And God does give us some broad outlines and some things that are quite specific. And today we will go through some of those that are more specific here. And of course, as we know, or hopefully we know and realize from Bible prophecy is that not everything is clear up front. A lot of times when we consider Bible prophecy, the meaning of the prophecy may not be clear until after it's already been fulfilled.

And then we realize, oh, that's what that meant. And we see that happen with Jesus Christ's disciples on a number of occasions, where they did not recognize prophecy being fulfilled during the lifetime and the ministry of Jesus Christ, but they did recognize it in hindsight.

After it had already happened, they realized what that Scripture was referring to and what it meant.

Nevertheless, there are some clear indications that we should be aware of because these prophecies will affect us at some point or another if they haven't already affected us. And if they are not already affecting us at this very moment. So we will go through several aspects in the sermon today, several aspects of prophecy relating to the church. We'll begin first in Matthew 24, a very familiar chapter here, a very familiar prophecy, the Olivet prophecy of Jesus Christ that Jesus gave just shortly before his death. And this prophecy covers a lot about what will happen in the world in the time leading up to his return. But it also tells us several things that we should expect to see within the church as well. So begin with verse 3 here.

Now as he, Jesus, 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 end of the end of the age? And Jesus answered, and then he gives the very first sign of the things that would happen between that time and his coming. And he said, take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. So we see in this prophecy regarding the church that many self-appointed leaders and false teachers will rise up.

And we should also consider there are two contexts for this prophecy. One is the world as a whole.

We know there will be the great false prophet, the man of sin, that will rise up at the time of the end. But it's also remarkable the warnings, the number of times he warns his followers in this prophecy about false teachers that will affect the church. Not just the world as a whole, but the church as well. So he's trying, clearly trying to tell us something when he repeats this warning. So the very first thing, the very first warning and sign that he gives is many, or his take heed, that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying they are Christ, or representing him, and they will deceive many. And this word, many, here, means many. It means much. It means a large multitude. It's not talking about just a few who will be deceived by these false teachers. But many will do this and deceive many. And then skipping down a few verses to verse 11, we see that warning repeated. He says, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

Says the same thing again. And then down in verse 24 he gives another warning, and this is specific about the church here. It will specifically impact the church. He says, for false Christ's and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So here we see again prophecy of the man of sin, the false prophet, these two who are so closely allied there at the end times. But they will show great signs, signs, in other words, for miracles, wonders, same thing. These will be miracle-working individuals at the end time. Or apparently, miracle workers, lying wonders is a term that Paul uses for what they do. And their miracles, their signs and lying wonders will be so powerful that they can deceive, if possible, even the elect, even God's chosen people. That's how powerful that deception will be.

So here we see three very clear warnings from Jesus Christ Himself, the last of which is clearly talking about the context of the church as well. And we should have taken the hint 25, 30 years ago in the church, but we didn't. We always thought the false teachers would come from outside the church. But as it turned out, the worst of them came from within it. It was there all along. We just overlooked it, didn't think that was possible, didn't think it could ever happen that way. But it did happen that way and took tens of thousands of people by surprise. The reason I say that we should have seen that coming is let's notice something else that happens over in Acts 20. This is near the end of Paul's ministry. He is imprisoned not long after this. And he meets with the elders of the church at Ephesus.

Shortly before he goes to Jerusalem where he is arrested. Notice what he tells here, the elders in Ephesus. Therefore, he says, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. So notice here what the role of an elder is in the church. It is to shepherd the church, to protect it, to feed it, to care for the sheep.

And then he says, for I know this, that after my departure, and Paul is leaving, he's ended his work, his missionary work, and he knows, or he has a very strong indication, what is going to happen, he is going to be arrested and ultimately taken to Rome. But he says, after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And the contrast that he draws here is that a shepherd protects and feeds and nourishes the flock, but a wolf doesn't protect the sheep.

A wolf feeds on the sheep and devours the sheep. And then he gets more specific in the next verse, also from among yourselves. Who's he talking to? He's talking to the elders of the church in Ephesus. Incidentally, they have come down and met him about 70 miles away at another port city south of Ephesus here that have been privileged to visit there. But he says, from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.

Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn every one night and day with tears. So Paul understood what would happen here. He would see it repeated over the course of his ministry, and he understood that aspect of human nature that some people want to gain a following for themselves regardless of the damage that it does to others and to the church.

And there's no question that this particular prophecy was fulfilled in part in the first century. And in time we see the the indicators there in the writings of the first century.

Paul's writings and the writings of the Apostle John there that this false teaching became so widespread that before long the church was barely recognizable where men did rise up to gain followings for themselves. And John talks about diatrophes who wouldn't accept representative sent from himself, the Apostle John, but refused to accept them and were were kicking true believers out of the church there.

So this happened in the first century, happened during Paul's lifetime. That's why he warned about it. And it will happen again for the simple reason that when Satan finds something that works, he keeps doing it. He used that method 1900 years ago because it worked then, and he's used it throughout the history of the church ever since because it still works. And he is still using this method, and any of you have been in the church for any number of years, you realize that.

I've been in the church 50 years now, and I can't count the number of times I've seen this happen here, where elders, individuals in the church chose the route of dividing people, of splitting off to gain followings for themselves. And again, Satan uses this because it works. He's used it in fairly recent years, false accusations, lies, things like that to try to gain followings. And if you think about it, that was the same method people used for Paul in the first century. He was continually attacked and accused of this and that, accusations that were not true from people that were trying to undermine him and discredit him as a leader in the church.

They did it then, they've been doing it ever since. So these warnings and examples are recorded here in Scripture for a reason that we are not to follow men. We are not to follow men. Jesus Christ is the one with whom we should have that relationship and be following and not a person. And it's very, very important here. Moving on to our second point here, the first one is about the false prophets, false teachers who are prophesied to arise.

Our second point, and there's another aspect of prophecy that we need to talk about in conjunction with this, because for false teachers to succeed, you have to have people who are willing to listen to them. And that's the second point here. So the whole other aspect of the equation and the next aspect of prophecy that we'll talk about is that some people will not have ears to hear. Or they will have ears to hear the wrong things, not the truth.

And what does Bible prophecy tell us in this regard? What do we need to know and be aware of and be on the lookout for? We find the answer to that over in 2 Timothy, again from Paul, 2 Timothy 4, verses 1 through 4. And Paul tells Timothy, as an elder here, gives him a commission, a responsibility, as an elder in the church. He says, I charge you, I commit this to you. These are your instructions, Timothy.

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and teaching. So we see here clearly part of the responsibility of the ministry here, which is, as Paul puts it here, to convince, to rebuke, to exhort with long suffering and teaching here.

And that is why I'm speaking on this specific subject here today, what will happen to the church in the church and the kinds of attitudes and problems that we see from prophecy will affect the church in the end time. And why is the ministry to speak about these things? Well, we find that in the next verse, verse 3. Paul warns, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

Anybody seen that happen? Well, they speak facetiously because we've all seen it if we've been around the church for any time. So I want to take a minute here just to illustrate some of the things I've seen in fairly recent years here that I'm personally aware of that tie in with this about people having itching ears and turning away from the truth to fables.

Some people that I have known and interacted with believe that God has spoken directly to them and given them a message to pass on to the church or to the membership or to the ministry.

Here, and they were convinced that they are now God's prophets and had a message for, again, the church as a whole, the ministry, the membership, you name it. As an illustration, several years ago, I got a call from the Archangel Michael. Just so you know, he lives in Canada there, and he had to use a phone to call me. So I guess it was just a little bit too long of a trip for an Archangel to make it from Canada down to Denver to speak to me in person. So he had to give me a call. I speak facetiously, but I've heard from several of the two witnesses also.

But to my knowledge, I'm the only one the Archangel Michael has called. So that's pretty way on up there. So another teaching that is now on its third round through the Church of God is that of sacred names. This crops up from time to time. I first encountered it not long after it just a couple of years after I came into the Church. In the early 70s, it made a round through the Church then. A number of people left the Church following that particular teaching.

About 10 or 15 years later, in the 80s, early 90s, it came around again. And now, in the last 10 years or so, it's on its third trip through the Church, doing its damage and drawing people away to that. And the basic idea behind the sacred names movement is that you and I must figure out how to properly pronounce the divine Hebrew name of God correctly. Now, never mind the fact that nobody has been sure of that pronunciation for the last 2,500 years. 25 centuries we have not known that for the simple reason that in Hebrew they only wrote the name of God with consonants and not vowels. So we don't know the vowel sounds that go in there. The consonants are YHWH or YHVH, depending on which authorities you look to. Most believe it's YHWH, but what are the vowel sounds that go in there? We don't know. Some people are convinced they do. I've had people write me convinced that they do, but they don't there. So another problem with a lot of these groups, frankly, is that they all think that we have to use the sacred name of God in addressing Him or talking about Him, but then they can't agree on what those sacred names are. As a matter of fact, one group, not too terribly long ago, changed their teaching on how you pronounce the sacred name of God. So one week it was pronounced this way, and that was the one and only way to pronounce God's holy name, and the next week, well, it's a different way. So which way is right? The way you taught it should be pronounced for years or the new way, and how can you prove that? So again, these are some of the problems you get into there. If you were wrong before, what's to say you're not wrong now? Or if you were right before? So on. And you run into the same types of things with calendar issues, things like that. Different people have different ideas about how you're to calculate the holy days or when the year begins and this kind of thing. But again, a problem you run into is that different people and groups and teachers disagree about that. So they say that we are wrong, and they're the only ones who have it right, but then they can't agree among themselves as to which calendar is correct. So that is just more of the chaos and confusion that comes up in different groups here.

I'm not questioning their sincerity, but just stating the facts there, because everybody can't be right. That is why I think God does establish a level of authority within the church and gives a decision-making authority regarding those things. On the other end of the spectrum here, there are some people who now have accepted the idea of universal salvation, that literally everyone will be saved no matter what they think or do or believe. And they teach that Scripture is referring to the lake of fire and so on apply only to Satan and the demons rather than to unrepentant human beings, and that every, again, every human being will be saved.

Personally, I don't know how demon spirit beings can become flesh and ashes under the feet of the righteous, as Malachi says there, but there are people who do believe in universal salvation here. Another example from a number of years ago, a man who was a member of the United Church of God wrote a book, apparently quite a good book from what I heard at the time, about the lost ten tribes and sold thousands of copies of this book to church members.

And a lot of people bought it, read it, were impressed with it. And a year or two later, he came out with another book, and again, people bought this one based on the quality of his first book. What they didn't know was between the first book and the second book, he concluded that Christianity was a false religion, that Jesus Christ was a myth or an imposter, so this was what his second book was about, and they bought that and read that, and about a hundred or more people left the church over that. This person also taught that the books of the New Testament were part of a vast conspiracy orchestrated by the Catholic Church. And again, a hundred or more people were taken in by these screwball beliefs and rejected Christianity altogether.

A couple of others to, off the top of my head here, a fair number of church members over the years have adopted the view that Jesus Christ is a created being and is not the divine Son of God after all. And of course, what does that do then with the need for a Savior?

Another idea, related beliefs somewhat to this, is that the being who came to earth in the flesh as Jesus Christ was not the being who interacted with people during the Old Testament period.

Instead, that was God the Father, and that it's not Jesus Christ who returns to the Mount of Olives as described in Zechariah, but that is God the Father, and the millennium begins then, and the new heavens and earth begin then. And human beings live on earth for all eternity after that. So another idea that gained popularity. And one final one here. Again, these are ones I've personally known about or been involved with. One former pastor that I went to college with actually now teaches that he and his wife are the two witnesses, and that the Great Tribulation actually began several years ago, and he believed this so fervently that he and his wife traveled to Jerusalem and spent some time there, but nothing happened. And he and his wife didn't get anywhere there, so they turned around and came back home. So this is a rather disappointing start for the two witnesses there. They just kind of bombed out there in Jerusalem and had to come back to Ohio.

One other aspect of his teaching was that all of the ministry of the other Church of God groups would either submit to his authority and come join him, or they would die out. So by his figuring, I should be dead as of about five years ago. And all of the ministry of the Church of God group should be dead by now. But to his frustration, we're still alive, showing by that that he's a false prophet. So again, these are just some of the examples, but they're representative of the weird beliefs that people get. Incidentally, where did he end up? He ended up being sentenced to prison for three and a half years for income tax evasion, so I'm not sure if he's finished his sentence or not. But again, this illustrates the point that, you know, regardless of the absurdity of some ideas, there are people who will believe them. Because as Paul prophesied, they have itching ears, and these people pass themselves off as great teachers, and they turn from the truth to fables. And how many times have we heard in our years in the church that we need to stay close to the trunk of the tree? We've all had that drilled into our minds again and again over the years, because that's where you're safe. You know, as a little boy, I love to climb trees, and I learned fairly early on that you stick close to the trunk of the tree when you're climbing a tree, because if you get out on those limbs, and this is a voice of experience, you get far enough out, the limb breaks or the limb bends, and you go crashing to the ground. I still have scars in my tongue from where I bit through my tongue with that experience here. So I think we've all seen that happen with people that we've known. They become obsessed with their own interpretations of doctrine or whatever, or the ideas of some teacher, and they turn to fables, as Paul put it. And Satan's goal is to take each and every one of us out of the game.

Every one of us. And he has many ways of doing that. You know, he doesn't need to deceive us about everything. He only needs to deceive us about one thing. Only one. That's all it takes. And he can pull us away from the trunk of the tree and lead us off into the twigs and the branches, where we come crashing to the ground eventually. All he needs to do is split us off from the body, and then he can take us away from being a productive part of the body of Christ. And that's why we need to be sure that we are sticking close to God, sticking close to Jesus Christ in a close relationship with Him and with the trunk of the tree, so that Satan cannot split us off and take us out. And we need to realize that a lot of these prophecies of the church are warnings, again, of what will happen in the church. God knows human nature, and Satan knows human nature, and they know our proclivities, they know our weaknesses, and that's why we are given these warnings and these prophecies of the church. So we will be aware and on guard against the things that Satan will do to try to take us out. Next one, let's turn back to Matthew 24 again here.

And here we see another danger to members of the church in the end time. We see here that the church will experience offense and betrayal and hatred. Matthew 24 verse 9, then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. So what this is telling us pretty bluntly is Christians are in for a rough ride ahead. I just talked about a little bit of that earlier today because we are going to see here in the coming months and years an environment radically changed in this country that is going to be openly hostile to Christian values and biblical truth, and they will have full power of government. You know, those of you who've lived in Colorado, look what's happened to our state in the last 10 to 12 years. It used to be a solidly conservative state. Not anymore.

Not anymore. And we're seeing that. And it's going to get ugly. And as conditions grow worse and worse, especially before Jesus Christ returned, the pattern of history is that people start looking for somebody to blame when things start going wrong. And all too often in history that blame has fallen on Christians because they are different, because we're not a part of this world and its system and its culture and values and so on. And God's people have become a convenient scapegoat. And it's happened before and it will happen again. That persecution will come. And there's not a lot we can do about it. It's going to happen.

And in this sermon, what I want us to focus on and concentrate on is the things that we can affect in one way or the other in our own personal lives, because there are external factors. We're not going to change government. We're not going to change the direction of the country. So we need to focus on the things we can impact, and that is our lives, our attitudes, our priorities, and so on.

So persecution will come, verse 9, that we just read about. Some of God's saints will be killed, as it states here, and also in the book of Revelation, you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake, for what we believe, for what our values are. And then comes the really scary part, verse 10. Then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.

Has that happened historically? Yes, it has. In a lot of cases, people got offended over basically nothing. What about you? You ever been offended? You know, we hear messages from the pulpit from time to time, which we need, about not being offended. Will you be one of those who does get offended over someone or something or offended over basically nothing in some cases? Have you ever been offended? I know I have, multiple times, over things that have happened within the church.

And I've had to think about the consequences of that long and hard.

And to realize, as I mentioned earlier, my relationship is not with a human being or with an organization. And don't get me wrong, but my relationship is with God and with Jesus Christ.

And that's what's going to see you through. And if you don't have that relationship, you're going to find yourself in a world of hurt.

I'm debated whether to tell this story or not, but no, I won't go there. Never mind. If you do get offended, you'll have lots of company.

But it won't be the best company. It won't necessarily be good company. Let's look at another verse here, Psalm 119, 165. We're told here, Great peace have those who love your law, and nothing causes them to stumble.

And I like the way the King James Version puts this. It's certainly within the range of meaning of the Hebrew words. Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.

And we've heard that for years and years in the church. And what it tells us is that the knowledge of God's law should give us a great peace of mind. And why is that?

Well, it's because the more we look into God's law, the more we realized how imperfect we are as people, the more we realize how much we need to change. And in the first chapter of the epistle of James, James compares God's law to God's Word to a mirror that we look into and we see what we're really like. And that's true because when we look at God's law and our lives in comparison to that, we should realize that we are sinners too, just like every other human being.

And we all need God's grace. We all need God's mercy and forgiveness just as much as the next person. And when we come to fully realize how much we are sinners and how much we need God's forgiveness and mercy, what right do we have to be offended at what somebody else has said or done?

We don't have a right to be offended and to get been all out of shape because in all likelihood we have equally offended somebody else with something we've said or done at one time or another. We may be guilty of the exact same thing, if not something even worse. So what's wrong with being offended? Being offended in itself isn't really the problem. It's what that leads to that becomes very dangerous because being offended can, if we don't stop it, start a chain of events that leads to a very bad place. It starts out with not being willing to forgive when something or someone offends us. And that leads to something else. And what is that something else?

Well, we find that over in Hebrews 12 verses 14 and 15. And what it leads to, as we're told here, is bitterness, a very dangerous condition. We're told here, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. This reminds you of Psalm 119.165, which we just read, great peace have those who love your law and nothing will offend them.

It's basically saying the same thing in slightly different words here. Pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.

So what this is telling us is if we are not doing the first part of this verse, which is pursuing peace with everyone, if we're not pursuing peace and holiness, what is holiness? Well, it's living a life dedicated to God. We can allow bitterness to take root and to start growing within us. And as it tells us here, many become defiled because of that bitterness. What happens when a person becomes bitter? Who's most important?

He is or she is. Other people aren't important. It's what someone did to us that becomes most important. And with this, that mindset, that person then becomes a judge of other people. And when a person becomes a judge, who's right? He's right. Or she is right. Always right. And guess who's always wrong? When you're the judge, everybody else is always wrong, and you're the one who's right. And that's why getting offended, getting bitter, and setting yourself up as the judge of others is so dangerous. Because we lose sight of who the real judge is. And the real judge is Jesus Christ. And we lose sight of that fact and the fact that we're a sinner who is no better than anybody else, and we need God's grace and mercy and forgiveness, just like everybody else. When we set ourselves up as judge, we lose sight of that.

When we become bitter, we lose sight of that. And as we see here in verse 15, again, this attitude of bitterness can spread to others, and by this many become defiled.

Many become defiled. And again, in our years in the church, we've probably seen this a number of times, that people become so bitter and so angry that it's literally impossible to reason with them.

For them to even see the truth of a matter. And the bitterness blinds people to reality.

And it's spiritual poison. And they just don't realize it. And the bitterness becomes so ingrained they can't change. And it's sad and it's tragic. That's why we've got to cut it off and stop that process before it gets that far. What does this attitude eventually lead to? Well, going back here to what we just read, Matthew 24 and verse 10, again, then many will be offended. And what offense leads to is we'll betray one another and we'll hate one another. And this shows this progressive attitude from being offended to judging others, to betraying others, and to hating one another.

And again, what's the context? It's not talking about the world. It's talking about the church.

And for a number of years in my earlier time in the church, I used to wonder, how can that happen? How can that happen among people who are a part of the body of Jesus Christ in the church of God? And sadly, I don't wonder about it anymore because I've seen an incredible amount of bitterness and resentment and name-calling and backstabbing and hatred among people who were part of the body of Christ, who call themselves Christian. I've seen people come to the point they absolutely hate other people and try to destroy them. And as we see here in Matthew 24 and verse 10, we need to do what we can to inoculate ourselves against that attitude, against being easily offended and getting into a judgmental and critical attitude toward others.

And again, we have to keep in mind who the accuser of the brethren is. It's Satan the devil. Moving on to another point that we find here down in two more verses, Matthew 24 verse 12, we find another aspect of prophecies about the church, and that is that the love of many in the church will grow cold. Not might grow cold, but will grow cold. Matthew 24 verse 12, because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold, but he who endures to the end will be saved. And like the previous one for a long time, this one puzzled me because it seems that the opposite should happen.

That as conditions in the world around us get crazier and weirder, and we see prophecy being fulfilled before our eyes, when lawlessness and iniquity abound and society as a whole is increasingly flaunting and rejecting God's law, it seems that that should make God's people more zealous and more on fire for serving God. But sadly, as we see here, that doesn't seem to be the case.

And God's people, the bottom line is God's people are influenced and affected by the society and the culture around us. That's why he tells us again and again, we're not supposed to be like everybody else. The Corinthians, thinking about them, they obviously had that problem.

The Corinthians exemplified the statement, you know, don't feel totally useless. You can always be used as a bad example. And the Corinthians, their problem is they were just like everybody else around them. And they had all kinds of problems as a result of that, which we find recorded there in Paul's epistles to them. We go back and read the epistles of 1st and 2nd Corinthians and we think, how in the world could God's people think or act this way? But they did, because they were influenced by the society around them. And we're no different today.

We're no different. Paul had to put a person out of the church there because he was doing something that was so disgusting, even by the corrupt standards of that day, that even the people of the world thought that is absolutely corrupt. But they did it. And today in the church, people can and do rationalize all kinds of things, even things that people in society think are wrong. And there's a real warning here to us in Jesus Christ's words here.

It's clear that we as Christians are not to get offended, as we talked about here, not to betray one another, not to hate one another, not to be deceived, and not to be so affected or wrapped up in the world, in the society, in the culture, that our love grows cold. We have to resist those things, and we have to endure to the end if we are to be saved. And perhaps this is where that spirit of accusation comes into play, that perhaps there's so much judging, so much accusing that goes on, that the people don't know what to believe, and they get turned off at everything.

And their love grows cold. You know, what about you? You know, one thing I'm seeing with COVID is that it's very easy to stay home on the Sabbath day. It's easy to let others come and do the work that it takes to maintain functioning congregations. The setup, the takedown, the sound systems, the webcasting, preparing the messages, song leading, all of that. And don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about those with legitimate health issues, age. I've repeatedly said those who have health issues above 70 or so is probably a good idea if you do stay home.

So you don't run the risk of COVID. And God and I, you know, recently had it, went through a bout of that that lasted about a week there, and a number of other members here along the front range have as well. But my point is that there are plenty of people who are young and healthy enough that COVID is not a threat to them, and they ought to be here, and they need to be here because God says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

Why does God tell us that? Because He knows we need it.

He knows we need to get together and assemble together on the Sabbath day, and on the Holy Days, and so on. Because He knows that the church is a body, and we're all a part of that body. And as Paul went into considerable detail, every part of the body strengthens and helps the other parts of the body there. And we all have parts to play within the church. And again, I'm not talking about those with legitimate health issues and risks and so on. But the question when I ask for those in that circumstance where you've gotten comfortable staying home, if that does not describe you, you're putting yourself at risk of something far more dangerous than COVID. You're putting yourself at risk of losing eternal life. And I don't say that lightly.

I don't. And I'll leave it at that, because if you are not following God's instruction to meet on the Sabbath, when you can and you have no legitimate reason not to, you're disobeying God.

You're disobeying God's instruction to not forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

Moving to another, and this ties in with something else here, the next area of prophecy that we'll talk about. We'll switch now from Matthew 24 to Luke's recording of the Olivet prophecy here.

And this goes hand in hand with the comments that I just made.

And that is the fact that many people will be unprepared and taken by surprise at the time of the end. And that seems to be kind of hard to believe, but it's true. We're told that very clearly. Luke 21 verse 34. We pick up another warning of Jesus Christ to His followers. Verse 34. But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come on you unexpectedly. And what does this word take heed mean here? It means to be spiritually vigilant. It means to pay close attention to yourself, to apply yourself, in other words. What Christ is telling us here is we'd better be spiritually ready. And he contrasts that here with the opposite of that, which is to be weighed down with self-indulgence and the cares of this life, because if that is our focus, we will be caught unprepared. And he continues, for it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. How does a snare work? Any of you, as little boys ever made snares or so on? I know I did that. It's been a long time out in the woods. I was never successful at it, but the way a snare works is you're walking along, not suspecting anything, and suddenly you're grabbed, and you're caught, and you're trapped. And there's no way you can escape that trap. And you pay for it with your life. And that's the reason Jesus Christ uses this example here. You get trapped and you can't escape because it's too late. And that, he says, is what's going to happen to those who are not prepared.

And he says, watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, not might, but will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.

And here Jesus uses another important word picture. This word of watch is applied to a soldier being on guard. He's on guard watching for the enemy, watching for approaching danger, so that he and those he's charged with warning are not caught unprepared.

And that's what Jesus Christ expects of us when he tells us we have to be watching, we have to be alert, we have to be on guard, there and vigilant regarding our spiritual condition.

And this kind of attitude is summed up in a very familiar passage, very well-known passage, Revelation 3, about the church of Laodicea at the end time. And here Jesus Christ tells the church at this time, right, these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you or spew you out of my mouth. Because, you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counseled you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. And anoint your eyes with eyesab that you may see. As many as I love, and that's what I'm trying to do in this sermon today, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

And what Jesus Christ is telling his people here at the time of the end is that maybe the worst kind of deception of all is self-deception. And that's a problem it's being talked about here. Clearly a lot of people are going to be deceived about their spiritual condition shortly before Christ's return. They're going to think that spiritually they're in fine shape. They're rich, they're wealthy, they're well clothed. They don't need anything, but the reality as God sees it, as Jesus Christ sees it, is they're spiritually wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. And maybe saddest of all, they've spiritually deceived themselves about their state. They just don't see it.

In a sermon a couple of months ago, I went through Matthew 25 and the parable of the ten virgins, which are representative of the church. And what's the point of that parable? The point of the parable is half the church is not prepared when the groom comes for his bride.

Half the church!

Does that scare you? It ought to. Certainly ought to. It should scare the daylights out of us.

And these are Christ's words of warning to his church as the time approaches for his return.

Are we paying attention to those warnings?

I don't want to leave us with the impression that everything that is prophesied to happen to the church is bad because it's not. Because God does remind us continually over the course of every single year through his holy days about the wonderful and positive and incredible future that he has for his people. And even the weekly Sabbath is an important reminder of that.

Of the time of rest that's coming for the entire world. The time when the entire world will come to hear and to learn about the words of God. But we do need to be reminded and not be surprised at the tough times we have to go through. God warns us about these things for a reason so we can be prepared. But at the same time, and I want to close with this, is that there are some very positive promises and prophecies about the church. And I want to conclude with a few of them.

First one is found in Matthew 16. Matthew 16 and verse 18. And here Jesus Christ says, I say to you that you are Peter. He's talking to the apostle Peter. And he uses a word play here. Petros. You are Petros, a small rock, a pebble.

And on this rock, Petra, which is a huge cliff or a promontory here, referring to himself and some other things we don't have time to go into. On this rock, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And we have a promise here that Jesus is building his church. He is going to build his church and he is doing the building. So what are we doing as part of that process here? Are we helping in that building?

Or are we hindering it? I talked before about how Jesus Christ is probably a stone mason. That's probably the trade he was doing. And he uses the metaphor himself, that he is doing the carving and the shaping of the stones for the spiritual temple that he is building of his people.

But as he is doing that building, what are we doing? Are we off? I remember my dad used to get so aggravated with me as a kid when he'd be working on something and I'd pick up some of his tools and walk off 10 yards away playing with his tools. He's, where are my tools? And so on. Are we helping with the process? Or have we taken the tool master's tools and we're off doing our own thing somewhere else? Maybe he's working on one side of the building and we're on the other side removing the stones that he is putting in place. Or maybe we're digging a hole that's undermining the foundation and stuff like that. Are we helping that building process go smoothly to build firmly and solidly? Or are we hindering that process? There's the old saying, lead, follower, get out of the way. Are we leading? Are we following? Are we just in the way?

Keeping things from going forward there. Again, a good question for us here as Christ is building the church. Continuing, let's look at another very positive passage here that Jesus Christ tells us. This is the latter part of Hebrews 13 in verse 5. It says, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. And this is incredibly positive. What a wonderful, positive promise here. Did you realize it comes from the Old Testament? It says here, it's a quote from the Old Testament here. Where does it come from? It comes from the book of Joshua.

What's the context of it here? Well, it's where God appears to Joshua after Moses has died.

And God tells Joshua, to paraphrase, the land that I promised you is there waiting for you across the Jordan. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. Be strong. Be courageous. Go forward into the land and claim the land that I have promised you. And I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. And that's where that promise comes from. And I find that incredibly positive because that is God's promise to us as well. He tells us, go forward, cross that river of Jordan, claim that promised land that I've set aside for you, that inheritance.

But our inheritance isn't just a physical plot of land there. It's not physical land and houses and fields and vineyards and so on. It is immortality as the sons and daughters of God in His kingdom.

And He tells us, don't be distracted. Don't stop working. Don't compromise along the way. Don't give up. Don't get lax in that. But move forward. Stay alert. Be on guard. Do your job.

Keep building. Keep working. Keep striving. And I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He says He will always be there with us.

Can we forsake Him? Absolutely. We've seen that in another passage here.

But He says He will never leave us nor forsake us. And again, that's incredibly positive.

I want to close with a final promise back in Daniel. Daniel 12, 1-3. And this more or less sums up the message of this sermon. And what I want to leave with you is as we return to our homes.

This is the conclusion of a message that is sealed up until the time of the end.

That Daniel was not allowed to understand, but it is something that we today do understand.

And we're told here at that time, Michael shall stand up, the great Prince. This is not the Michael that I heard from, from Canada on the phone call, but apparently another one. Who stands watch over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that time. And that's talking about the coming time of the Great Tribulation that Jesus foretold in the Olivet prophecy, a time of great trouble that will see God's Church experience its own fair share of trouble in that time. And at that time, your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth, in their graves, shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. But those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament. And the firmament here is a Hebrew word. It's talking about the sky. It's talking about the night sky at night, which we can enjoy here in Colorado, looking out and seeing the brilliance of the stars in the Milky Way and things like that. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of that starry sky at night. And those who turn many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever. And they will shine like the stars because we will then be the glorified, immortal children of God. God's resurrected family, now Spirit, now God. And this is the ultimate prophecy of our future as members of the church and the family of God, to shine like the stars forever and ever. And this is the future that God does have in store for us if we heed these messages, these words of warning, and if we apply them not to others but to ourselves. So maybe we all have ears to hear what Jesus Christ says to us in these prophecies of the church in the end time.