The Warning to the Church at the End Time

Towards the end of the 1960s, the apostle Peter was dealing with some very difficult problems in the church. And they were problems he would have never imagined 30 years earlier. The apostle Peter had, of course, been with Jesus, and he had done, along with the other apostles and then Paul, who was abroad and along later, he had done what Christ told them to do. They went out and they started churches all over the place. And we do know from the writings in the Scripture that at that time they thought Christ was coming back right away.

You know, when Christ ascended, it's interesting, they went up and they all stood there. An angel had to come and tell them, what are you doing here? He was supposed to come and not leave. And so they struggled with that. And as time went on, they began to realize that that timetable that God had was a little different than the timetable they thought.

And as they did, certain problems started to come up inside the church. Now, one of the problems was some creation of new ideas, new prophecies about Christ's return. And of course, it didn't happen the way they thought, so people began to develop new ideas, new prophecies about the return of Jesus Christ. And he had to deal with those. So let's go to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1.

The whole letter that we call 2 Peter is Peter dealing with, and this was a general letter. This wasn't sent to a specific person or a specific church like many of Paul's writings. This was sent to all the churches. And he was dealing with the fact that these new prophetic ideas have been formed, and he's dealing with them directly. And let's look what he says starting in verse 16. For we, talking about the apostles, did not follow cunningly devised fables, where we may know to you the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

Now, as we'll see, some of the problems they had to deal with were ideas that Jesus would come in secret. Paul was already dealing with earlier. Before this, the idea that Jesus had already come, and that it's sort of the beginning of the amillennial concept that you have that formed later within a couple centuries of this.

Christ was already here, and after a thousand years, he was going to show himself. This is where you begin to see ideas of what would later become the rapture. They weren't formed yet, but the idea that there was a secret coming of Jesus Christ. So they're dealing with these things. And what's interesting, though, here's what Peter says. He says, you know, he wants to talk about the power of the coming of Jesus Christ, but he says they were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

Now, Peter spent a lot of time with Jesus, when Jesus was on earth as a man, and Jesus did see him as a resurrected being, and he was there on the Mount of Olives when he watched him go up into heaven.

But this is an interesting statement. I can tell you about his Second Coming. I will tell you what it will be like, because I've seen him in his majesty. He uses the word eyewitness here. Now, what is he talking about? Let's look through the rest of the few verses here. Then we're going to go look at the specific instance he's talking about, because he gives us the clues here in this passage. For he receives, talking about Christ, from God, the Father, honor, and glory, with such a voice came to him from the excellent glory.

This is my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased. He says, I know this because I heard the voice declaring who Jesus is. And we heard this voice, which came down from heaven when we were with him on the Holy Mountain.

I was with Jesus Christ, we, the apostles, were with him, and we were there on the Holy Mountain, and we heard the voice. And what we saw was His majesty. We saw what it's like in the resurrection. We saw what He's like when He returns. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Now, I find this fascinating, because Peter here uses an argument 30 years, over 30 years, after an event that says, I was at this event, and this event told me about what Christ is going to be, look like when He returns.

It can't be a secret, because I received a vision. I heard a voice from God. So what is He talking about? Well, let's go back to Matthew chapter 16, and let's look at this event He's talking about. And when we read through here, it's obvious that this is the event that Peter's talking about decades later. I'm going to tie this into something about the day of the Feast of Trophins that we really need to zero in on.

And, you know, all through today, you receive different aspects of this day. And I want to deal with a different aspect of what's been covered so far. Matthew 16, verse 24, Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

For what profit is it for a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? So, He's making a very important point here. This is going to tie you to the whole message. Jesus says, What good is it to have money or fame or things? You know, what good is it to be the smartest person in the room? What good is it to have what everybody defines as success and lose out on what God wants to give you? Verse 27, For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father. So He makes this declarative statement, I'm coming back in power and glory with His angels, and that He will reward each according to His works.

And then He makes this remarkable statement, Assurely I say to you, there's some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Now, you can see why they thought He was coming back in their lifetime. Did He lie to them? He said, Some of you, some of those disciples right there, will see thee as they come in the kingdom. And yet they all died.

So did He lie to them? Or what was He talking about? And why would Peter reference this event as we read it to say, I've seen it? And this tells us our starting point here as we talk about the return of Jesus Christ and the Feast of Trumpets. Let's go to chapter 17 now in verse 1. It's six days later. Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John, his brother, and led them up on a high mount by themselves. So they're on top of a high mount, what Peter calls the holy mount. And He was transfigured before them. They saw Him, and we'll see a little bit in a few verses here, it's a vision. They see Him in a different state than He was before. He went up on the mount as a human being, God is a flesh. But they see Him as something else. And He is, in His vision, He's transformed. He was transfigured before them, as space shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. You say, how did they know that that was Elijah and Moses? How do you have no idea? Nobody had pictures of Elijah and Moses. This is a vision. They are receiving from God information. And they know this is Moses, and this is Elijah, and Jesus, and they aren't physical anymore, and they're talking. Now, this doesn't mean Elijah and Moses are in heaven, because we read what the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, that none of these have gone to heaven. They're all waiting for their resurrection, and they're mentioned by David. So, He's receiving a vision. Now, remember what He told them, that some of you will not die until you see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. You're going to see what it's like. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If You wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for You, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

The temporary dwellings. While He was still speaking, they'll hold a bright cloud, overshadow them. And suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, and who I am well pleased, hear Him. Which is what Peter said was said. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces, were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, Arise, and do not be afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Now, as they came down from the Mount, Jesus commanded them, saying, Tell the vision. It's a vision. He didn't say Elijah and Moses had been resurrected. He said, You saw a vision. Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.

So, the reason I bring this story up is because I want to go through two passages of Scripture. We're going to have, it's almost like a Bible study today. I'm going to go through two passages of Scripture. And I'm going to show you how they fit together and the importance they have for us. And one is Matthew 24. We're not going to go through the eternal prophecy of Matthew 24-25. And I want to go through parts of Matthew 24. And I want to go back to 2 Peter. But this is a reference point for Peter because the whole letter is about people who are misunderstanding the return of Jesus Christ. And now Peter is saying, No, we as the church cannot lose this vision of what he's doing. And it's a very strong set of statements Peter makes to the church.

Peter wasn't writing to the world. The letter that Peter wrote that we call 2 Peter wasn't written to the population at large. It was written to the churches.

Matthew 24 was what Jesus said to his disciples. So it has importance to us today as the people of God, wherever they are, these two things fit together to tell us a very important message. And it ties in to Christ's return and the tribulation and all the issues that this day represents. The sound of trumpets, the gathering of people, the heralding of the return of the king. It has to do with those great horrible seven trumpets. They're the horrible things that are going to happen on this earth. But it has something to do with us. You know, in the sermon that we talked about, Mr. Foster talked about the gathering of Israel. Well, there's some other people gathered. There's a lot that this day has been to it. But God wants us to learn from it. So let's go to Matthew 24.

So we're just going to go back and forth between Matthew 24 and then we're going to go back to 2 Peter and let's look at an overview of these two passages. So we're not going to have a lot of deep meaning of Greek words and all kinds of other things. This is an overview because there's a message in here for us personally. That's very important. In the first couple chapters or verses of Matthew 24, Jesus said the disciples, they're taking a tour of the temple. They walk around the temple. They're talking. They're looking at everything. He takes them to the Mount of Olives and they ask Him in verse 3, now as He said on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately saying, tell us what these things will be and what would be the sign of Your coming in the end of the age. Now He had just told them that the temple there's going to be destroyed. Okay, they were trying to put together some of the prophecies. The temple is going to be destroyed. When the temple is destroyed, the Messiah is going to come. The Messiah comes to the Mount of Olives. We know that from Zachariah. They're sitting on the Mount of Olives. They know He's the Messiah. They're trying to figure out how this works. So tell us how this works. Tell us so we can figure out when you're actually going to do this, when you're going to set up this kingdom.

Tell us the sign so we'll see and know when it's going to come.

Now remember, their understanding at this point is probably He's going to do it right away. I think how excited Peter was when Jesus rode in on a donkey, which fulfilled a prophecy. The Old Testament prophecy. And people came out by the thousands and chanted, Hosea, and He brought out Paul. Because what did they say? Oh, this is the Messiah coming in. And He shows up with two swords. We're going to take all of the Roman Empire. Is two swords enough? The fire's going to come out of your mouth. I mean, this is going to be great, right? Remember the context in which they're thinking.

So they're saying, okay, how does this work? You're already here. You keep talking about your coming. Okay. You tell us the whole temple's going to be destroyed. So He starts in verse 4. And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you. That's a remarkable way to start this. He says to them, Be careful, because people will get this wrong. The message He gives, they had no idea centuries and centuries and centuries were past. We're 2,000 years later and it hasn't happened yet. He had no idea that.

This message isn't just for them. It's for us. It's for every generation of Christians. And I want to show you that. This message is for every generation of Christians, especially those who exist and live at the time just before He's coming.

But it applies to everybody. It applied to them. Many of them had similar experiences, or many of Jesus' followers, in 70 AD. That's why there is a school of philosophy, or not philosophy, but a prophecy that says they're called Preterists that believe that all of Matthew 24 was fulfilled in 70 AD. It couldn't have this.

It just ignores whole passages of the Scripture. But there are, like so many prophecies where there's former and latter fulfillments, part of Matthew 24 in a very small way was fulfilled in 70 AD, including the abomination of desolation and other things. We're not going to go into that now, but some of this applied to them. So this is a far-reaching prophecy. But I really want to zero in us now, because I think most of us here believe that this world is headed towards chaos, and we may be on the cusp of what these events predict.

So what do they mean? Well, first of all, he starts out with, be careful, because people will get this wrong. For many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you are not troubled, for all these things has come to pass. But the end is not yet, for a nation will rise against a nation of kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in various places, as these are the beginning of sorrows. I know that many of you feel panic because of what's happening in the world today, and anxiety.

Calm down. These are just the beginning of sorrows.

You know, if you look at history, and you look at horrible things that have happened in history, we're not there yet. Now, it's like lighting the fuse on a whole bunch of dynamite. The fuse may be lit, and we're headed towards events. But don't get too overwhelmed here. Step back and realize, you know, Christ isn't coming back tomorrow, and it doesn't matter.

Christ may come back in five years from now, and He might come back 25 years from now. I don't think so, but that's, you know, God's never asked me for my opinion on His timetable. He never will.

The important thing is, we have to have a certain mindset, and it doesn't matter when He comes back. And Peter says this, and Jesus itself says this in Matthew 24. There's a certain mindset we have to have so that we live our lives as if He is coming back. We live our lives to the fullest each day, applying God's directions, God's laws, God's ways.

It's only God's way He can bring happiness anyways. But there is a mindset we have to have.

Now, we stop right there, and you know, I have heard through verse 8, read a thousand times. And that may be a slight exaggeration, but not too much.

But you realize that most of Matthew 24 isn't about the events in the world.

All of chapter 25 is part of the Olivet prophecy, and none of it is about the events in the world.

Most of chapter 24 and all of chapter 25 is about the church.

And it's about the church in every generation of the church Matthew 24 and 25 applies to.

So if you were a person following God a hundred years ago, Matthew 24 and 25 had importance to you, even though you're a long ways from the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The closer we get to it, the more intense this message is. But it's for everybody of all time. Because it's what He expects His church to be.

And there's very stern warnings here. Notice what it says in verse 9. This happened in 70 AD, but not near to the extent, because what happened was, in 64 AD, Nero blamed the burning of Rome on the church. In 67 AD, the Romans showed up and invaded Judea. Well, because they had revolted.

And they surrounded Jerusalem for three and a half years.

What's interesting is there was a group of Jews who left Jerusalem at the beginning of the three and a half years. And we have numerous historical accounts of that from the first and second century.

Including some Roman accounts of weird events. Like there was a voice that shouted out from the Jewish temple, get out of here, basically. It said, remove you, hence. And some people left.

There were signs in the sky that even some of the Romans saw. There's all kinds of things that happened in 70 AD.

And let's take this down to the Second Coming, because the real focal point of Chapter 24 is the Second Coming. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. He switches to his disciples.

Yes, that happened to a certain degree in the 60s leading up to 70 AD. See, it's going to happen before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The fifth seal is persecution of the people of God.

So there is going to be a persecution of the followers of Jesus Christ at the end time. Now, some of the church is protected. Some of the church is not protected. That's not the point I want to talk about. The point I want to talk about is, He talks about the state of the world. This is what the role will be like before I come back. He still has to come back. It's still the future. And this is what the church by disciples will be like. Because verse 10, and then many will be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. The subject has to go back to the world, by the way. The subject is still the church. Persecution of the church will cause Christians to betray other Christians.

People of God to betray other people. That's what 10th that's going to be.

Give us names and you can live. This is going to be a horrible time.

Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. You and I are in a society that's increasingly lawless. And by the time the tribulation starts, this whole world is going to be lawless. And because of that, the love, and He's still talking about you. He says you. Verse 9, He's talking to His disciples. We are the disciples now. The love of many will wax cold because of the sheer lawlessness of the world.

This is one of the great warnings today that I want to look at inside Matthew 24 and in Peter.

He goes on, He says, But he who adores to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world, and the witness to all the nations of the end will come. He who adores will be saved. He's not talking about the world. He's talking about His disciples.

It's not going to be an easy time. No, it's not about here to make us all depressed because it's not an easy time. There's a lot of promises about how God will take care of us and protect us and gather His people together at the sound of the trumpet. We'll read some of those.

But here we need to look at and understand the church. Now, not everybody will be doing that because there will be people who will ador to the end and will be saved. But the great warning message here, and one of the reasons for blowing the trumpet or the piece of trumpet is the warning. And we usually think of the warning to the world. Today I'm zeroing on on the warning to us that is contained in this message, in this day. The warning to the people of God that ties in to His Second Coming. You know, it's interesting. Go back just a page here to Matthew 24, 45.

We're right still right in the middle here of the Olivet prophecy.

Right in the middle of it, and it gives us parable.

Verse 44, oh no, let's go to verse 45. Who then is a faithful, wise servant? Now, he's talking about here the servants of God. The parable is obvious.

Who is master made ruler over his household to give them food in due season? So who is it that's going to receive reward from the master when the master comes?

Blessed is that servant who is master when he comes will find so doing. Now, if we read through this whole Matthew 24, 25, he explains what they're doing. They're doing the will of God. They're obeying God. Their whole lifestyle is centered around being prepared for the return of the master.

They're doing his work, not just the external part of the work, but the internal part of the work, being converted.

Verse 47 says, Assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. But that evil servant, now we're still dealing with servants. The subject hasn't changed from servants of God to non-servants of God. These are the servants of God. These are the people called by God. People given his spirit, given the knowledge. Their mind's open to his way.

And as that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying his coming. This is what's interesting.

He doesn't say my master isn't coming.

The mindset is, you know, yeah, Christ is coming back someday.

And, you know, we need to be thinking about that. But right now, my career really has to come first. Right now, my family really has to come first. Or right now, and some of these things, well, these are important. But it's what comes first.

We know Christ is coming back, and we know we should anticipate that, and we should somehow be prepared for it. But let's face it. Let's face it. I have a chance of getting a really nice house. And that is the center of my life. That and the new car I'm going to get.

Now, it's not wrong to get a new car and a new house. I understand my point. My point is the evil servant here loses the vision of Christ's return.

That's why I said this has to be this prophecy applies to all generations. If you lived and you were a person of God in the 1700s...

Now, check that. Well, it was a short-lived emergency.

If you lived in the 1700s, guess how you had to live your life? As if Christ was returning in your life. It doesn't matter that He didn't. Because if you don't live believing Christ is coming back, you will lose the vision. Now, you say, well, does that mean they do? Christ wasn't coming back then. They possibly do. Christ wasn't coming back then. That's not the point. How did they live? Because here's the point. You can walk out of here today and get hit by a car and die. And for you, Christ is coming back this afternoon. Because the next thing that happens is your resurrected wind at the return of Jesus Christ. So, we have to live our lives with the full participation, anticipation, and dedication to the return of Jesus Christ.

And we'll see in a minute where He actually says that. So, He says this evil servant says, I know Christ is coming back, but I get this, you know, their whole emphasis on something else. And here's what begins to happen to them. Verse 49, and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards. Two things happen. They begin to feel superior and despise other people. You know, like, sort of like the Pharisees saying, here's the tax collector. They're both in the temple. And He looked at him and said, thank you, Lord, that I'm not like Him, with my superior knowledge, my superior understanding, my superior ways.

And they begin to live sinful lifestyles, because they don't anticipate the Kingdom, which is what the Holy Days, these fall Holy Days specifically, really point us towards. Since they don't anticipate the Kingdom, they live one foot in the Kingdom of Satan and one foot in the Kingdom of God. Sort of halfway lifestyles of sin. Just get drunk once in the wild. Just break the Sabbath once in the wild. Just steal or cheat or lie once in the wild. Just watch pornography once in the wild.

So there's sort of part-time Christians.

He says, verse 50, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and in an hour that he's not aware of, and will cut him in two and appoint him in this portion with the hypocrites, and they'll be weeping and gnashing his teeth. That is a statement of eternal judgment. He's not talking about the world. He stopped talking about the world while he stopped at verse 8. He talks a little bit later in the chapter, and then he goes right back to his servants, his disciples. And he says, there will be those who will not make it, because they live as part-time disciples.

It's easy for us to say, oh, I know some people like that. But there's a warning to us today.

This is the sound of the trumpet. This is with the seven trumpet sounds. Matthew 24. The whole last seven trumpets are the last part of the tribulation.

Now, let's go back to 2 Peter. We'll come back here to Matthew and finish up there. Let's go to 2 Peter.

You still with me? Or have you all gone to sleep?

2 Peter 3.

So, Peter, we already read where Peter's talking about dealing with these new ideas that have come along about Jesus and His return. And he said, no, I know what Jesus Christ will be like in His return. I saw it. I was an eyewitness of the vision. We were on top of this mount, and there we were. And we heard God say this, and that's what we saw. And we looked at what He saw. So we know what He's dealing with. Verse 1, Peter says, Beloved, I now write to you the second epistle, in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior. He says, we've got two sources here. One are the prophets of the Old Testament. So you want to know about the coming of Jesus Christ. You want to know about the coming of the Messiah. Go there and see what Isaiah says and Jeremiah says, what Moses wrote. Moses was inspired to write about the coming of the Messiah. Go read what the minor prophets wrote. Go read what Zachariah wrote.

And we just had two Bible studies on Zachariah. Go read what they say.

And he says, listen to what we're saying. He's talking about those apostles who were there with Christ. We gave all this information too. Knowing this first, the scoffers will come in the last days, walk according to their own lusts, and saying, where's the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.

Exactly what Jesus said what happened.

You know, it's hard. Some of us have been waiting for Christ coming for a long, long time.

When I was seven years old, I really caught the vision of Christ as coming.

At seven years old, I said, well, He'll be back before I'm a teenager. Well, He'll be back before I'm married. He'll be back before I have my kids. He'll be back before they get out of college. He'll be back before I have grandkids. Now I'm saying, I hope He comes back before I die.

But it doesn't matter. You know, there are visions of our lives, what we drive towards in life. Most people don't have any vision of life. They just go all over the place. They arrive at an accident called their death, and they have no idea how they got there and what happened along the way.

Purposeful people have a vision and they go towards it. And our vision is to be what Christ is, what God did for us through Christ, and what God is doing and what God wants for us now and in our future. And we have to be driven towards that point.

And so He said, what's going to happen is we're going to get sort of dumb to it. You know, I hear Christ is coming back. I know that. I've known it for over 50 years. And sometimes it's easy to say, He'll come back sometime, but right now I just like to go fishing. It's easy to do that.

First five is very interesting. For this they willfully forget. In other words, this is a conscious decision to do this. But we just lose that vision and say, I know that's in the future, sometimes that's good. But right now I'm really interested in this new promotion that I'm going to get. I'm going to make a whole lot more money, and that's really the whole center of my life. Now, getting your promotions is good, but is it the center of your life?

What is the center of your life? For this they willfully forget that by the Word of God, the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water, and in the water, and by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth, which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. We emphasize, and we should, the mercy of God, God's forgiveness, because all of us need it. We all need God's grace. We all need God to pour out His love on us, because without that, we have nothing. But both in Matthew 24 and in 2 Peter, and talking about the return of Jesus Christ, there are warnings to the church that says, remember, this is your day of salvation. This is our day of salvation. And to not follow through with what God is giving us now could or will have eternal consequences, and they could be bad.

And we must never forget those warnings, because this is the day of warnings. Oh, but it's so good to get up. I love to get up and talk about how the world's going to be punished as Christ is going to come out, and fire is going to come out, and he's going to defeat the armies of the world. That's great. I love that stuff. But every once in a while, we get to stop and remember, there's a warning to us, too, in here. There's a warning to us, too.

He's talking to the church, and he says, we cannot willfully forget that God does pass judgment.

And so we need to be aware of that judgment. He goes on. We're saying, but beloved, do not forget this one thing. That with the Lord, one day is a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some count slackness. But His long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance. We keep thinking, why won't God hurry up and do things? And God says, because I'm gathering those who I want to repent. And, of course, He's not gathering everybody today, because He doesn't want everybody to repent today. And we forget that.

God doesn't want everybody to repent. It's the people He chooses to repent. Now, He could choose somebody, and they don't repent. And the message here in 2 Peter, and the message of Jesus is, if you repent, and you receive this blessing of God's Spirit, there is no going back. There is no going back. There's only going forward to the sound of the trumpet, because there's eternal consequences for going back.

And there's eternal consequences for going forward. And we cannot forget that. Verse 10, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief of the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and elements will melt the fervent with her fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

Of course, the day of the Lord, and we've talked about this many times, but it has numerous meanings. I mean, Israel went through their day of the Lord, the Assyrians showed up. It's a time of judgment. Judah went through their day of the Lord, the Babylonians showed up. The whole world's going to face its day of the Lord when Jesus Christ returns.

And God pours out His wrath on the world. And there's a day of the Lord that happens at the end of the great white throne judgment, when God destroys the face of the earth with fire.

And there are people on the earth when He does that, that they are destroyed. And He reminds the church, let's not forget that. There's a reason why He says not to forget that. Verse 11, Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?

We have to remember the eternal consequences and what is being offered to us, what is being promised to us. And God will do everything possible to give it to us except possess us and make us take it.

We either march toward the sound of the trumpet or we march away from it.

That's our choice, but God is offering it to us.

Looking for and hastening, verse 12, the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. That word promise is very important there because Peter doesn't want to leave this in a totally negative context. He says, remember, the promise is march forward and you will get there because God doesn't fail. As long as we stay with God, we will succeed. We'll fall along the way. We'll sit along the way. We'll make blunders along the way. We'll stumble along the way and He'll pick us up and He'll probably show us that sometimes and He'll push us along and He'll get us there. That's the promise. But what happens when you march away from the trumpet?

Now you've got a problem because you're doing this alone. He's not with us when we're marching away.

So He wants us to remember He promises to get us there. It's a great promise. God doesn't fail. He never breaks a promise.

It is, do we want it that much? Do we want it that much? So let's go back to Matthew 24 now. I want to sum up what we're talking about here today. Matthew 24, with the words of Jesus Christ.

He talks about the abomination of desolation, which is a huge subject.

He talks about people fleeing from Judea when they see the abomination of desolation. And we know the abomination of desolation actually has three fulfillments, and the final one is yet to come. But I want to look at verse 21 because He now starts talking about the whole world again. Verse 21 in Matthew 24, Since then there will be great tribulations, such as not His spins since the beginning of the world until this time, no nor ever shall be. The latest figures for the possible death toll of the Ebola outbreak is 1.5 million, before they could get it under control. There are wars and rumors of wars going on in this earth. Compared to other times in human history, these are pretty good times. World War I, 11 million people died. And then almost somewhere around 20 million, they're not sure, around 20 million people died because of the flu epidemic that happened at the end of the war.

World War II, at least 50 billion people died. But the figures keep going up. You know why?

Well, let's see. There were three and a half million Russians that never came home. They were German POW camps. About five years ago, historians started to change the figures because they realized they're never coming home. Half a million Germans never came home. They finally now listen to this dead. A hundred thousand Americans who were just listed as M.I.A. because they got blown up or something. You know, they never found their bodies. American dead in World War II and not by 25 percent five years ago because they realized they're not going to be home. They really don't know how many people died in World War II. There are whole populations in China wiped out by the Japanese, and no one knows the figures. No one knows what really happened.

See, we don't even think about the Chinese. They died by the millions in World War II.

According to Revelation, before the tribulation starts, before the tribulation starts, one-fourth of the world dies.

That's over 1.5 billion people. You'll know it.

You'll know it because that marker will be obvious. There's no way to hide that level of catastrophe. Oh, man, this is a bad shirt. No.

There is only one way to face that. You know, you can hide from it. You can pretend it's not going to happen. You know, some of you are saying, oh, good. Maybe Christ won't come back for 20 years, and I'll be dead, and I won't have to face it. I've had people tell me that. My dad said that to me before he died. You know, I get the better end of this deal. I'm going to go to sleep here and wake up.

When I wake up, Christ is coming back, and I'm being changed. You've got to live in this mess. Well, thanks, dad. That's what I heard.

But I knew exactly what he was saying.

We want the haste of the day, but there's only one way to face the day. That's what we have to understand. To face this day, he tells us how. Because you could be a billy there, and it would be better.

How do we face this day? Verse 22 tells us how unique this time is. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh should be saved. But for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. It wasn't until about 30 years ago that they could even kill everybody. Maybe it was possible for every person on the earth to die. It would be possible if there was a giant meteorite hit the earth or something. But this is a human being to have the capability of doing it. That's never been possible before, until about 30 years ago. We forget there's enough nuclear and biological weapons to do that, let alone all the other things that we can do to each other, plus the natural catastrophes. Someone said recently, boy, we need some more service or prophecy.

That will all be depressed. Verse 23. Now listen, this is very important, because think about what Peter was dealing with. We read parts of 2 Peter. That if anyone says, you look, here is the Christ, or there, do not believe it. He says people are going to believe there's a secret coming of Jesus Christ. He's here. Let's all go there where He is. So as we get closer to the end time, that's going to happen. Jesus has come back. He's here. Let's go there. Well, wait a minute. He said that's not going to... when He comes, we're all going to know it, which was Peter's argument in 2 Peter. We're all going to know it. I've seen what He's going to look like. You can't hide what's going to happen. Then verse 24, for false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to see if possible even the elect see I have told you beforehand.

False Christ. That is to be there's going to be people possibly coming. Now we do know... you have to back up a minute, because we do know the beast of the false prophet, the false prophet does claim to be a messianic figure. So... and he's going to do great signs and wonders, and if possible, in other words, if we're not careful, the very elect will get deceived by that.

It will seem so good people get deceived by it. But it says false Christ, very plural. That doesn't mean there can be lots of people running around saying, I'm Jesus, I'm Jesus. But there are going to be people who say, your salvation depends on doing exactly what I say. That is a messianic figure. You know, Paul said, follow me as I follow Christ. That's very important, because any true minister of God is always going to say, follow Christ. Follow me as I... you know, as Paul says, I sort of try to do this, follow me the best you can, and I'll do the best I can. But let's keep looking at Christ. Christ is always where true ministers of God lead you to. Let me guide the Father, sure. But I mean, Christ is the example. Christ is the example.

False Christ means there's going to be people saying, I am the example.

That's a dangerous place to be, because then you believe your salvation depends on that singular person. And he said, be careful of that, because that's going to happen at the end of time.

He says, therefore, if they say to you, look, he says, the desert do not go out. Look, he's in the inner rooms. Do not believe it. And here's why, verse 37, whereas the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west. So also will the coming of the Son of Man be. He says, it's going to be obvious. There's no secret coming of Jesus. Verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give us light. The stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And the sight of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will board, and they will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So he says, don't be fooled by ideas of secret coming. What was Peter dealing with? Just a little over 30 years after Jesus said this. In the church, people were talking about secret coming. Paul was talking about people who said, well, he's already come back.

So these things repeat over and over throughout the generations.

Verse 31 says, and he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet.

And notice what? This trumpet, these seven trumpets, especially that last trumpet. There's a lot of things that go on in that last trumpet. The sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

He will gather physical Israel, but he's going to gather spiritual Israel.

The disciples of Jesus Christ to be changed, the fates to be changed into spirit beings. But, you know, even at this he warns us. Even at this he warns us. Look at verse 36.

But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

What he said was, I could give you all these signs, and I could give you all this information, but you're not going to know the exact hour, the exact day. You're going to have to hang on to its face. And then it says, verse 7, the days of Noah were also, so also, with the coming of the sediment be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving and marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away. So will it be. So will the coming of the sediment be. You know, there's going to be people who make money during the tribulation. There's going to be horrible things happening during the tribulation, but there'll be people, it'll be a good time for them.

It'll be a good time for lots of people. You know, I know my wife and I were watching a series of eight programs on the life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and there was a lot of part in it about the Great Depression. And of course, the Great Depression, you have between 25% and 30% of all the people in the United States out of work. But there were people who made a lot of money during the Great Depression, too. There were people, it was a good time. The high life. In the Great Tribulation, there's going to be people that, it's a good time. And he gives this warning, they won't even see it coming. He said, well good, we won't be like that.

He now gives another parable by the distance of the church.

Let's conclude with verse 42. Boy, I'm glad he gave that warning to the world. Watch, therefore. Now, this is us. We're watching. The people we're eating and drinking as in the day of Noah, they won't be watching. They'll be having a good time.

They'll have entertainment. They'll have money, and they'll have food, and they'll have nice houses, and they'll have cars, or whatever. They'll have all that they want to be.

Watch, therefore. He's back to his disciples. For you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

Wow, he gives us all this information that later gives the apostle John the entire book of Revelation, and he still says, you still have to be very careful in your life right now.

Oh, good. I'll start watching when we get real close. He says, watch, because this can catch you unawares if you're not careful.

But know this, verse 43, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore, you, you, not the world, remember most of Matthew 24 and all of Matthew 25, the great majority of the Olivet prophecy is about the church.

You also be ready for the Son of Man is coming, and an hour which you do not expect.

We can't play at this. This is our salvation. The promise has been made. Forgiveness has been given to you. God's Spirit has been poured out upon you. You have the Bible. We have everything we need.

But are we ready?

Do we understand we must be ready all the time? And as I said earlier, you have a heart attack today. Christ comes for you today.

Oh, well, that sounds like the old Protestants. Are you ready? I don't care what other people think. I'm just telling you what Jesus Christ said.

Are you ready? This day is about the greatest thing that's ever happened. The Second Coming of Jesus Christ, to set up God's kingdom on this earth, to eradicate violence and hatred, to eradicate starvation and war, to eradicate disease, to set up a government that teaches God's way into all the world. All the world will live God's way by the same laws. We won't have any problems about trying to figure out how to keep the Sabbath, because everybody will keep the Sabbath. There's discussions of problems we have as God's people now. All those things will disappear, but Christ will say, this is the way we're going to do it. It'll be real simple. We'll have to need for taxation, and we'll have tithing.

That is what we have been called for. And that's what these holy days, the fall holy days specifically, picture. And that's what we start with this one.

But you know, if you go to the Feast of Tabernacles and you come to hold with your greatest memory of the Feast, we're going to have the Feast of Tabernacles and New Brown.

We have 300, just about almost the same numbers last year, about 360 people registered. Last year, we had every day over 100 people, almost every day, over 100 people extra.

We had 540 people one day. Some of them were from other Sabbath-keeping groups.

Some of them were people just what it gives you what we're about. It's amazing. A little group like that would have an impact on the New Brown business community that they remembered us.

Never underestimate the power of your example. This is who we are.

This is our identity. How cheaply are we selling it?

How cheaply are you selling it? Are you selling it for a bottle? Are you selling it for a lover?

Some of you have sex with it. Are you selling it for... What are you selling this for?

Christ said what His disciples said, show us the signs that He said, be ready.

They wanted a whole lot more prophetic detail, and what they got was a message that said, be ready. I always play the... or blow, it'll play the... I did see a guy play the national anthem on a shofar once. I have no idea how he did that.

There are three different sounds that are played this with the shofar on... in most synagogues today. I'm not trained to do that. I will pretend to do them. But when we play it, or when I play this, I make these sounds, I want you to think about it's a warning sound.

We're talking about the warning of Jesus Christ coming back. We're talking about the warning of the war that's going to happen as Christ fights humanity. But I want you to think of something else. I want you to think about the warning to us that Christ gives. He gives us a warning, because when Christ comes back, this will be our day of judgment. When Christ comes back, we will either be changed or we will be rejected. This day pictures the day of your judgment.

Think of that as we hear the sounds of the shofar. We have a happy and holy day season.