They Did Not Receive the Love of the Truth

Brethren, we live in dangerous times, in dangerous days. And people go on living as if everything is normal, and living as if living in a virtual world, as if it's not actually there. People are experiencing life in ways that it's as if they're not actually living through it.

So my question today is, are you ready for the events of this decade? You know, we've got video games, and through these video games, people are being conditioned to accept evil and not feel for evil as they should be. In other words, a world of divorcing ourselves from the reality. The other side, we have a cult-like worship of the so-called idols of music and whatever it is. Fan clubs. And these, a lot of these people, are actual bad examples, for instance, as far as drugs and behavior.

And our youth is emulating. We really live in a world of strange ideas and ideologies, even political ideas, which are based on something which is actually not real. The real truth is not coming out. And yes, there's a lot of good deeds that you start a big campaign to donate for some cause, which is great, but the cause is not being addressed. It's purely addressing a little symptom yao there, but not really fixing the problem.

So, whatever spectrum of society you look at it, whether it's entertainment, whether it's music, whether it's politics, it's based on lies. False suits. Now, I want you to turn to a scripture in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10. Now, I know that the context is talking about the man of iniquity. And we will get to that a little later. We'll come back to the scripture a little later. But here, at the end of verse 10, in 2 Thessalonians verse 10 says that there's all this unrighteous deception. There was all this falsehood amongst people that are just dying.

Why? Because people have not received the love of the truth.

Now, I know that it's talking in a context of a religious false prophet. But the principle of this society is one that does not love the truth.

And therefore, what we have, we have a society wherein mankind is being conditioned to accept lies and not being able to discern the right from the wrong. Indeed, many, many years ago, we read that in Daniel chapter 12, Daniel was shown a number of things about the future. And then it refers to a time where Michael stands up, a time still to come. But yeah, in Daniel chapter 12, it says there'll be great trouble. And Daniel wanted to know more and he stole, hey, it's not the time for you to understand. Because the day will come when knowledge shall increase. Yeah, many will run to and fro and knowledge shall increase. Brethren, knowledge has increased exponentially in the last few years and has been increasing enormously in the last century or two. For instance, with the start of the invention of electricity, things have just escalated to a point that for instance, even during the Second World War, there was the invention of nuclear power through the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And now we live in this doctrine of mutual detente, you know, kind of holding one against another. But you know, the knowledge has increased. You and I would have not guessed a few years back that you would be holding a little device that yes, it's a phone, but it's a torch. It's a compass. It's a map going anywhere around the world. You can see the temperature and the weather anywhere around the world. You can get mail. You can see people. You can talk to people. It's just you would have not guessed. And, Brevin, this is only maybe in the last decade. Okay, maybe the phones have come up a little. But this degree of what you see in cell phones today, it's based in the last 10 years. What about the next 10? We start a new decade, 2020. What about the next 10? Now we have things like artificial intelligence. There was a man that was going around certain way and traveling, and he went into another area. And then he came back to the States, and they said, you were in this area near where there's a coronavirus, and therefore you need to be whatever. Quarantine or whatever. They say, how do you know? Because they got cameras everywhere. They can take, identify your face, and they can track you where you are with artificial intelligence today.

You would have not guessed that a few years back. Then there is this thing called quantum computing. They say that one of these quantum computers, apparently Google's got one that they've just developed, this quantum computer, that does calculations in a matter of seconds that the most super powerful computers will take 10,000 years to calculate. Now you put that with artificial intelligence and manipulating information about people and things like that, what is possible in the next 10 years? Knowledge shall increase. Wow! Has knowledge increased?

They're testing shops. They call them like a Google shop. Then you can go there with your trolley and put this in a trolley, that in a trolley, the other thing in a trolley, and you walk out. You don't have to go through a cashier. Because it automatically identifies with some sort of a little chip, RFID chip, or whatever it is, on those goods. And onto your cell phone with your, not your cell phone, your credit card with your RFID little chip, and automatically deduct that from your credit card, and you don't need to go through a tiller. Those are prototypes today. They are actually in existence today. Imagine it, isn't it? So, technologies are there that you can profile every single human being on Earth. And you can see where they are, providing you've got enough cameras around, and you can know where they are at any moment. You don't need a chip being embedded into your brain, or anything like that. They can pick it up.

And then, you've got medical advances. Now, they are such that combining that with 5G technology. Now, what is 5G technology? Basically, it is the equivalent of you have the most powerful Wi-Fi downloading capabilities, with practically no time difference between when you ask and when you receive it, anywhere around the wall. You can be in Darkest Africa or in Amazon, because you've got to have satellites. Like every month, they're putting out satellites, Elon Musk, I think it is, putting out satellites at the region of about 20 or 30 a month out there, which are already 5G capable. So, in a couple of years, you just switch the soil, and provided you've got cell phones, which are 5G-enabled, you'll be able to pick it up anywhere around the wall.

Am I being over, or even exaggerating? I don't think I am. I think things like this are pretty much on the verge of happening. Now, one of the technologies they're thinking of is, if you have that response time without delay, you can have a doctor doing an operation on a computer in a specialized lab somewhere, for instance in the Mayo Clinic, and you have a robot enabled to that in Afghanistan, right there on the front line, operating that individual with a doctor in a Mayo Clinic, and doing it just like that, because the response time is like this, so there's no delay.

No wonder, God said, when it was the Tower of Babel said, nothing will stop them when they have one language. Then there's another technology called CRISP. You may have not heard that, but it's called CRISPR, which is DNA or genome editing. They can take a portion of your DNA and put another portion into it. You do a Google search and you'll find it. It's there. And you can change an organism's DNA, for instance. They're working and testing and solving certain cases with that. I think we're on the verge of enormous technological breakthroughs. Yes. Where is the evil? The evil is not on the knowledge, it's on the use of that knowledge.

You see, because in parallel with this, we've got an absolute complete moral collapse. Morality has collapsed and mankind is not able to discern or distinguish what is right and what is wrong. So they can actually do things which are pretty evil and they'll obviously deny it that they've done. But it's amazing what they can do. Look at 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1. This says, there will be times, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

Brethren, there is a spirit of lies in the world today. And that's why I started by quoting 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 10, saying, they do not love the truth. Because it's a concept that goes beyond just the truth. It's a spirit, it's an attitude that is induced by Satan and his demons.

And mankind is falling prey of it left, right and center and it's lies. Starting from the attack on the family, attack on a godly clean sex, attack on what is proper gender and whatever extreme you want to look at it, it's all there. I don't have to itemize these things. You know it. But the problem is that this will spread out like fire. You see, you look at some of these fires in areas that are very dry.

A lot of the fires have been started by people of malicious intent by starting up a little thing. And because the grass is very dry, it's ripe and the temperature is hot, it's ripe for the fire to just spread out. Think of it spiritually. Spiritually, it's like our minds are this dry grass ready to absorb this wickedness. And you just need that flame and it'll spark and explode at an extremely high speed. And I'm drawing this analogy to the carnal mind. Because the carnal mind is like that grass that is dry, that is ready to absorb every lie provided for their own selfish desires and needs and passions.

Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 7. Romans chapter 8 verse 7. And you know what it says, you're probably not of my heart. Romans chapter 8 verse 7 says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. The mind is inclined to the things of the flesh. Flesh in Latin is basically carne, carnal mind, carne, things of the flesh. For instance, I dealt in my trip with people in Brazil. Some of them say, I can only get a job in March.

I said, why? Because in Brazil everything closes down from December onwards. Why? Well, because in December you have Christmas and all that stuff and in the year, etc. January is when the companies say, well, it's a new year, fire people. February, nothing happens because it's getting ready for carnival. What's carnival? It's flesh. Carn, flesh. It's the last of the flesh before Lent. So, go wild. In fact, in Rio it's already kind of that spirit.

Carnival will be towards the end of this month, but it's already declared carnival season. And so, these people are saying, only in March when all that is over, then we can start getting jobs and when people start hiring.

The human mind, the carnal mind, the mind set on the flesh, on carnae, flesh, on the things of the flesh, is enmity against God and indeed cannot be obedient to God's law.

Brethren, this is nothing new. It's nothing new.

What? Because you can go back to the days of Adam and Eve and Satan came to Eve and said, oh, God told you you can't die? He's lying. That's basically what he said, because you can't die. You've got an immortal soul. That's basically what he said.

And then, but what God doesn't want you to see is that you're going to be like him. Well, that's a bit of truth, but it's mixed with lie, because he's saying, well, if you eat of this fruit. You see, there's lie, a bit of truth, a bit of lie. Satan is a master deceiver.

And how is deception spread out? Mixing truth with lie. So it appears truth, but it's a lie.

Now, if somebody was to give me a glass of water, and the water was peach black, I would refrain from drinking it. But if the water looks nice and fresh, it is fresh. But if it had a drop of arsenic, I wouldn't be able to see it, but it would be poison. You see, Satan is a master of deceiving at different levels of deception. For some people, well, a little bit of dirt, that's okay. You can have this religion that's got a bit of dirt. The other one, it looks as near to God as possible. But it's got a tiny bit of poison in it. It's still poison. He's a master of deception. Why? This poison is a little bit of lie. Therefore, it says they do not love the truth. They do not love the truth. And so, what happened from Adam and Eve? Well, it propagated to their children. You look at the story of Cain. Cain decided by himself what is right and wrong. That's the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I decide what's right and wrong. I don't believe and trust in God. God told him to offer him a certain specific sacrifice, possibly because, I believe so, but I'll just say possibly because it pointed to Christ. So, it had to be an animal blood sacrifice. Maybe it was even the Passover at that time already.

And he chose to offer vegetables and food. And that is an insult to our Savior. And so, God did not accept it. So Cain went around all, oh, poor me, nobody loves me, type of thing. You know what that is, you know, poor me, nobody loves me. Look at that in Genesis 4, verse 7. Genesis 4, verse 7.

If you do well, says God to him, will you not be accepted?

I mean, God is not accepting Simon or not accepting others just because of your looks. No, God is saying, if you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. What? Sin? How do they know what sin is? Sin is a translation of God's law, right? 1 John 3, verse 4. How do they know at the time of Cain and Abel what was sin? Because they knew. You see, God's law was not given only in Exodus 20 to the Israelites, it was given long before.

And that's why in the 10th command it says, remember the Sabbath. It doesn't say, oh well, yeah, yeah. The Sabbath was given even before Genesis 4, in Genesis 2. So all that goes back. So sin lies at the door.

And its desire is for you, as it some say, it's against you. It's to destroy you. And what sin's desire is to kill you. The wages of sin is death. So sin's final outcome is yours and my death. It's the desire of sin. It's against us. It's to destroy us. But you and I must rule over it. You and I have to overcome sin. You and I have to overcome the difficulties and the challenges of the carnal mind.

As simple as that.

But Satan says, oh no, it's okay. You decide what is right. And if you decide what is right, you can do it.

In my visit to Brazil, I was visiting a person who was very injured, but they invited a friend. And the friend brought this husband. And the husband was from a Sabbath-keeping organization, interestingly enough. Not a Church of God organization, but a Sabbath-keeping organization. You probably know who he is, a well-known one. But anyway, he said, yeah, but... And he's from this organization that's supposed to keep the Sabbath. And he says, but you know, yeah, and Brazil is very difficult to keep the Sabbath. So God understands if you break the Sabbath. Because God is full of mercy and grace. He forgives. So I asked him, good question. Let me ask you. God forgives you, doesn't he? Yeah, forgives you. So therefore now you can go and kill people, you can kill your wife. He kind of paused. I mean, it was as if he fell off his chair. And then after a longish pause, he says, well, but there's the cities of refuge and blah, blah, blah, blah. So anyway, and then, but it just shows the carnal mind. And then I said, and then I explained, you know, all right, this is a city of refuge, but that was unintentional. You know, there's a different story there. It's unintentional. Then I said, you know, the point is now that you have repented. Yes, you have repented. So if you repented, what does repent mean? Repent means you stop doing what you did. Otherwise, it's not repentance. It's worldly repentance, not godly repentance. So he was all agitated and then he ended up leaving. And when he left, it was like a dark cloud left the room and was just so peaceful. And this lady that is doing baptism counseling with me over the internet, it was just so peaceful. It was so nice. And it just went well. It just shows how we can identify these wrong spirits. Really, it's like day and night. But I would not allow him to say things are incorrect because there was a member there or a prospective member that says, well, why doesn't the minister kind of, you know, put him in his place? And I do, respectfully, kindly. But, you know, you didn't have an argument with some simple... because the technique is Christ's technique. You ask a question. You ask a question. And by asking questions, and quite often you don't have the question in our minds, but we just pray very quickly and God gives us the question. God gives us the question. We ask the question. And then they checkmate themselves. They checkmate themselves because they don't... But the point is, mankind serves the days of Adam and Eve, want to do wrong. And all they need is just a little push by Satan with a little deception, with a little bit of truth mixed with a lie. And it's like putting a match onto dry grass that just burns everywhere. And that's human nature. And that's the world we live in today because of the moral decline that we encounter. I mean, you know the story, for instance, later on when Israelites left Egypt. And then Moses went up on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights. And you know what happened afterwards? He came down and what was happening? It says, there we're going, dancing naked! Naked!

Well, that is symbolic of sin. They were just going, wow! Brethren, we live in an age where this scripture that I'm going to read next is so true, is so true that you, when you read it, you will say, that is what we live in today. And that scripture is Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20. Isaiah chapter 5 verse 20. In fact, Isaiah is amazing to read in today's context. But just read Isaiah 5 verse 20. Whoa! To those who call evil good. Wow! Don't we live in an age where people are calling evil good? And good evil? That's where you and I live today! And who put darkness for light and light for darkness? Who put better for sweet and sweet for better?

Brethren, the wall is upside down. The small collapse is going everywhere. Things are just exploding. And brethren, you can see it from 10 years ago. If you look at 10 years ago and what is there today, things have escalated at a great trend.

Imagine the next 10 years. But we live in what Christ described as purely the beginning of sorrow.

Look at Matthew 24 verse 8. Matthew 24 verse 8. Matthew 24 verse 8. It says, all years are the beginning of sorrow. When it says, nations are rising against another, kingdom against kingdom, there will be famines, pestilences. Here was terrible diseases and you can see that today. There are terrible diseases. And earthquakes, interesting the word earthquakes, is seismos, which was used for instance in Matthew 8. 24, which means a tempest. So bad weather. It's earthquakes not just in the earth, but like earthquakes in the air. So it's that sort of tempest in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrow. And as we read a bit further in verse 37 through 39, it says, but as the days of nowhere, so shall also be at the time of Christ coming. Because they were eating and drinking like it says, peace and safety and then sudden destruction. We read that in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3, sudden destruction. That's what happened to Noah's day, sudden destruction. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 3. And so it says, you know, verse 39, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away.

So it will be like in the days of the Son of Man, the days of Christ coming. And breaking. Those in positions of authority don't want you to know the truth. Because they got their own agendas. When it's on this side or that side, they all have a little bit of truth or a little bit of a lie. That's what it is. Look at countries. Look at North Korea, China, all in Iran.

Even our own country. You see, some political parties. I just cannot believe how some people are just speaking absent brunch. They do not love the truth.

And what is it doing to us and to our children? It's conditioning us to accept a situation like this. Because in the end, in the end what we do have is a spiritual warfare. That is the real thing. This warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against power. That's the power of weakness. That's that so-called white horse of the first horseman of the apocalypse, which is white. Which is basically just religions with false ideas. And they all are saying, well, there's going to be a messiah coming. The Buddhas are looking for the First Buddha. The Hindus are looking for the Krishna. The Islams are looking for the Grand Mahdi, if it's this Islam group, if it's that Islam group, it's looking for the 12th Imam. The Jews are looking for Messiah. New Ages are looking for Matraya. Christians are looking for a return of Christ. Yes! Christians are looking for a return of Christ. But you know what? They'll think the Antichrist is Christ, because they've got it upside down. Because Satan, he seems the whole world. They think there's going to be a union of churches before Christ come, and voila! Finally, all the churches are going to be united. Well, it'll be a false, false union of the false churches. Satan, in the end, tries to mimic, tries to appear like an angel of light, like Christ. To the point that this false prophet will come, and as you read in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3 and 4, let's look at there. 2 Thessalonians 2 and 3, verse 4. 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 3 and 4.

It says, Let no one deceive you by any means, that the day that comes coming will not come, unless the falling away comes first, which I probably would guess that has happened already quite a few years ago. But anyway, and the man of sun is revealed. That is that false prophet, the son of the Prodition, who opposes and exalts himself above all. And that is called God, or that is worship. In other words, will be act as if he's God. He says, So that he sits, now that he sits, as God in the temple of God. He sits like God sits in the temple of God, acting like as if he was God. He sits as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he's God. Brethren, there's going to be a big deception. But you know what? The world is ripe for it because the world is ready to receive lives. It's been conditioned to receive lives.

So, as we look at things happening, there are many incredible developers that are to develop in front of our eyes. In the years ahead. Incredible! Parallel with a decline in morality.

So, I ask the question. I ask a simple question. Now, please, I'm not setting up dates. It seems to be a short story. Anyway, I'm not setting up dates. But let me ask a question.

What if? I don't know when. But what if Christ would come within this decade?

Are you ready? Am I ready?

I appreciate the summary because it told us, are we growing in fruit? That's what we need to be doing. We need to say, are we actually making progress? Are we actually growing? Look at Isaiah 58, verse 1. Isaiah 58, verse 1. Cry aloud, spare not, lift up your voice like a trumpet. Tell my people their concentration. The house of Jacob, that's Israel, their sins.

Brethren, that's our job. That's our job. Are we doing that through our godly example by putting fruits in our lives, by supporting the church and the ministry, so that this can be fulfilled? Or are we diluting the strength? We have to cry aloud and show my people their sins. That's our job.

Brethren, there's going to be such difficult times ahead that Ezekiel says in chapter 9, verse 4 through 6, says, sit a sign on the forehead of those people that sigh and cry for the weaknesses that are happening. Brethren, we cannot take a stance of self-righteousness and say, we are better than those people, because you and I are only Yah for the grace of God, because otherwise I'll be right there with you. Right there. I'm only Yah by the grace of God. So we have to cry and sigh and sympathize and empathize for people because they don't know better. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because Satan is destroying. That's why our job is to preach the gospel as a witness, so that later on when it happens, they say, well, nobody told us. Well, we did it. But there is a hope beyond that.

But if I take these points together, what we're seeing is incredible events are going to happen very fast. What if Christ's coming is sooner than what you and I think? Are we ready? Are we doing what's the right thing? Are we bearing the right fruits? And that brings us to the point, are we renewing ourselves inside ourselves daily? Look at 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16.

2 Corinthians 4, verse 16. Therefore, do not lose heart. Don't be discouraged. Even though our outward man is perishing, brethren, you and I, in these last 10 years, have perished a little bit more than previously. We're all a little older. But hopefully inside is different. Hopefully inside, as it says, yeah, the inward man is being renewed day by day. Are we renewing ourselves inside inwardly, day by day? And getting more of God's Holy Spirit, applying it more, exhibiting more of the fruit of God's Holy Spirit, and as we're earning the sermon, going through those 7 stages, steps of growing from faith to virtue, to knowledge, to self-control, to perseverance. It was just stages of growth, of bearing fruit, of godliness, of brotherly love, and of godly love. Are we going through that?

Daily?

You see, that scripture in 2nd Peter, it ends by saying, if you do this, you'll never fall.

If you do this, you will never fall. You know what it's saying? Verse is this way, is your life insurance policy.

Your eternal life insurance policy. If you do this, this is your eternal life insurance policy. You'll never fall. And it says, and so by doing this, you'll be given a great entrance into the Kingdom of God. That's how you get into the Kingdom of God, which is, quite correctly, we heard it's the goal. Seek you first, the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness. His righteousness is the way. That's how Christ did, that's the way, that's the direction. The goal is, seek you the Kingdom. So, are we ready? Are we ready?

Wherever things are going to happen, in the next decade, that the world will not be the same. If you look, for instance, at some political debates, I think you can say that in a year's time, it will not be the same.

It's just not to be the same. It's just it is. So, what must we do to renew ourselves daily? And here are a few simple points. I'm going to go through them briefly. But here are a few simple points. First, study God's Word. Because Thy Word is the truth. Study God's Word. 2 Timothy 2. Let's go there. 2 Timothy 2. 1 Timothy 2. Verse 15-19. Be diligent. Present yourself approved to God. A worker who does not need to be ashamed. Rightly dividing the Word of truth. Of truth, not of lie, of truth. And really rightly dividing. Because there's many people who are dividing it incorrectly. For their ulterior motives, for their agendas. And some of them that don't even know the agenda because they're being swayed by Satan.

Shun profane and idol babblings. Stories that people say they profane and idol. For they will increase to more ungodliness. There was more lack of righteousness. And their message will spread like cancer.

It's an evil that will just spread like cancer. And at that time there were already some people that were doing that. They were strayed concerning the truth. So brethren, we have to have the solid foundation of God's Word as it says in verse 19. It had interesting realities. God knows those Rahis.

God can see your heart.

I can't, but God can.

And so, when times are difficult, when things are difficult, you know, add to your faith, your virtue, all this knowledge, the right knowledge, the truth, and then have perseverance to persevere. Because when things are difficult, you'll feel like throwing in the towel.

Simple. You will feel like just saying that's enough. But you know, God knows who are these. You are not in a battle against a person next to you that is kind of discouraging you. You're a battle for Godly values to be like Christ. So if the person next to you is discouraging, tough. You just stay, stay the course. Don't give up. Stay the course, persevere till the end. You cannot get into the Kingdom under the proverbial, your mother's curse. You've got to get into the Kingdom under your own commitment, or your own effort and exercise of overcoming sin like God told Cain right at the beginning, you, your responsibilities too, rule over it. You and I have to rule over it. Secondly, tied to that, so the first study, the Bible study God's Word. Secondly, Matthew 4 verse 4 says, You are to live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You are to obey. You are to put into practice. Not you, me, myself, us. God's Word is a lamp. And you and I need that. And you know what? Acts 5.32 says, God gives His Holy Spirit to those that obey Him. You want more of God's Holy Spirit? He has the formula. Obey Him.

You want more of God's Holy Spirit? Obey Him. There was a man that said, Oh, teach me how to have more of your Spirit. And then what did Christ say? Well, in a parallel, people kind of read that and don't get it. Because He says, well, there was this man that did, and he did this, and he did that. And He says, you're an unprofitable servant. You've just done what you should have done. What is Christ saying? For you to have more of God's Holy Spirit, you've got to go over and beyond the minimum requirement.

The minimum requirement, you've got to excel. You've got to put the effort. You've got to obey. The third point, you've got to pray.

You see, you've got to listen to God's Word. You've got to put it to practice. In other words, meditate, put it to practice and pray. Pray and watch. Look at Luke 21, verse 36. Luke 21, verse 36. Luke 21, verse 36. Watch therefore and pray. Oh, you watch CNN? No!

I'm not saying it's because CNN or Sky News, whatever it is, or Fox News, whatever it is. No! You've got to read it in context. Because if you take back to, for instance, verse 34, it says, take heed to yourselves. In other words, watch yourselves.

Watch me, myself and I. Are we doing and living according to God's standards?

Take heed to yourselves. Lest your hearts be weighed down with whatever. With wasteful time, dissipation, wasting time, whatever it is, with drunkenness, with the cares of the small, and then sudden destruction. Because peace, peace, I'm okay. Or in other words, I'm warm and I'm rich and increased with goods, and then comes sudden destruction because you're allowed to see it. And that's the age we're living today.

Because it'll come as a smear for everyone that dwells on the earth, says the Elder Sada. Therefore, watch yourself. Therefore, watch yourself. Therefore, take heed to yourselves and pray always that you may be counted worthy. It's not saying, well, pray that I will decide to make the right decision of going to the place of safety. You probably want to have that decision.

Because God will decide for you whether you are counted worthy or not. That's what he said.

To escape all these things and to stand before the Son of Man. In other words, and to be when Christ comes there, to be with Him. So, yeah, it's not just to save your skin in the days ahead. It's actually to stand with Christ when He comes back, to be in the first resurrection, or to be changed when Christ comes. So, the third point is pray and watch yourself. And what do you watch yourself? You've got Scriptures like Ephesians 4, Colossians 3, that says, Take off the old man, put on the new man. There's a lot there to study about things that we need to change. To pray so that you and I are counted worthy. As we heard in the sermon, that we bear more fruit on these things. And number four, number four, Beware there is a Spirit trying to deceive you. Beware of deception, because Satan is out there like a roaring lion, trying to destroy who he can. And how does it destroy? By lies! That's why it says, They do not receive the love of the truth. Because if you receive the love of the truth, you're not going to be swayed by these cheap lies. You're going to be discerning, because you study in the Bible, and you're going to be discerning what's right and wrong, and believing what God says is right and wrong.

So, beware of deception. All these big deceptions are out in the world. Big deceptions. You're saved by grace, alone. Of course we're saved by grace, but not alone. Romans 2, I think, is about verse 13. It says, It's not just the years of the law, but those that practice them will be justified. We've got to be obeying. Well, then you've got other people who say, Oh, I want to know prophecy. I want to know when this happens, when that happens, and the other happens, and you've got these things on Facebook, this happened, well, well, well, well, well.

They've got itchy years, and I just want to know about all these prophetic things, and they say, Yeah, therefore it's Christ coming, and this and that. Brethren, prophecies will go. You read that in 1 Corinthians 13, verse 2, prophecies will go. Because prophecy is there to lead us to repentance. That's why there's prophecy, to lead us to repentance. If the nation would repent, these things would not come upon us. Regrettably, they will not. But prophecy is there to lead us to repentance.

And then there's the side of the thing, Oh, I know this knowledge, and I know that knowledge, I know this. Knowledge puffs up, and so if you have all this knowledge, and you're going around proclaiming all this Biblical knowledge, be careful. Because it's kind of intellectualism. It's like Gnosticism in knowledge. But besides knowledge, there's something inside you that God looks at, called a heart. God looks at the heart. So, here we have four things I've mentioned so far. Study the Bible. Obey. Pray and watch ourselves. Beware of deception, that is an account, big time, big time. In other words, receive the love of the truth. And the first one that I want to mention today is, put on the whole armor of God. Look in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6.

We'll start reading from verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the vows of the devil. Put on the armor of God so you're going to stand against the lies and the trickery and the deceptions of Satan. Because we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. People are going to come to us with different untruths, etc. It's not them. It's a spirit stirring it up behind them and they don't even know it. Because we are fighting against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the sage, against spiritual hosts of weakness in the heavenly places. Therefore, verse 13, put on, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand, withstand in the evil day which is coming. Could be this decade, brethren. I'm not setting dates. But I would not be surprised that we have that few number of years. Maybe a few more, but I would not be surprised. The Lord is not delaying His coming!

So, stand therefore, having girded your waist with what?

Truth. Truth. Because we live in a world of lies, deception. So, put around yourself truth.

Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, in other words, obeying and doing the right things. Righteousness. Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. So, walk along a way which is towards peace. Not a peace lover, but a peacemaker. It's two different things. Above all, take up the shield of faith, of absolute trusting in God, with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts, with all the doubts and questions that Satan will throw at you. Take up the helmet of salvation. What is the helmet of salvation? It's the hope that we have. You look at scriptures like 1 Thessalonians 5 and 8, it says, The helmet of salvation is the hope we have. The hope of what? Of our goal of being sons and daughters of God in the kingdom of God.

And the sword of the Spirit, which is the only offensive weapon, the sword of the Spirit, which is God's Word.

Praying always, back to praying. Praying always, with all prayer and supprecation, in God's Spirit, being watchful. And to this end, with all perseverance and supprecation, we were praying more with deep supprecation for all the saints, for one another, and for me, and for the ministry, and for the Church, so that the work may be done boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel to the world. And what is the mystery of the Gospel? Why are we born? Are we going to be children of God? Keep that bright in our minds. So brethren, are we ready for the events of this decade? Really what I'm saying, brethren, we need to have a sense of urgency.

Time is short. I don't know how long, but I put a question. What if it is only in a few years? Are we doing what we can to be ready? So we need to study. We need to obey and live by every word. We need to be praying that we are watching ourselves, so that God will then give us more of His Spirit because we obey. We need to put on that new man. Then we need to be careful of lies because we are drinking in of God's Word, so we know the truth, so we are being aware of lies, the deception of Satan. And then we need the armor of God, which wraps around with truth first, and then the hope of God and all that.

Brethren, we've got to live our own lives, not a fantasy of lies like this world is living with games and things like that, and virtual games and virtual reality and whatever it is. Because this is not a game. This is not a game. It's our life, our eternal life. And if Christ is coming sooner than what many may believe, are we ready?