What Does God Expect of Us?

Today we're going to view what the world will be doing, what the church will be doing, and hopefully what we will be doing as this age winds down. Whether we have three years, ten, twenty, fifty, or however many years it is, what will the world be doing? What will the church be doing? What will you be doing as we see these days approaching? The United States is once again headed toward a much-slinging election year.

We had a new candidate enter the race this morning. Martin O'Malley, former governor of Maryland, has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States. We already have a filled Republican group who are seeking the nomination. There must be at least ten or more there now. And we see the Republicans are against the Democrats, the Republican candidates are against each other. The Democratic candidates are also against each other. The people are against all of them. Democratic and Republican. So you've got to have a few million.

In fact, it wouldn't hurt to have a billion. That's probably low in what some will spend in their pursuit of the nomination for the presidency of the United States. The media and the people are hypocritically concerned about the morality of the candidates. Not too concerned about the morality of the country, but of the candidates.

And it seems that no one is concerned about the morality of the nation. Everyone is concerned about economic welfare. The economic report for the first quarter of this year is the lowest for any president in the history of the U.S.

The economy grew at seven-tenths of one percent. Of course, they were hoping for much more. Let's turn to Hosea 4. Hosea 4 provides a graphic portrayal of the current state of the nation. The president, you know, announces or gives what is called the State of the Union each year in January, the State of the Union. These few verses here will give you the State of the Nation and also the world and the State of the State and the State of the City and the State of the County, and so on it goes.

Hosea 4.1, Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the eternal hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land. Hosea came on the scene showing the condition of what Israel had become in leaving God, and things were to the point that God had to put Israel away, give them a bill of divorcement.

By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out and blood touches blood. I think they had some 28 murders in Baltimore over recent days about that number or more in Chicago. Many injured. That's in the U.S. of, quote, citizen-killing citizen. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, probably more people died there than Americans on the battlefield in recent times, just in recent weeks.

And of course, almost every day now, and especially on Fridays, the prayer day for the Muslim world, there's a suicide bomber that goes in while people are offering their prayers to Allah, false God. Yes, I said it. A false God. And yesterday was no exception. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break out and blood touches blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwells therein shall languish in the beast of the field.

And with the fowls of heaven, yes, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. Similar to what you read there in Amos about one place, there is no rain and sweltering heat. It was so hot in India and the northern province of India this past few days that the pavement was melting. And a city of teeming millions, 124 degrees, in town, not in Death Valley, in town, and people dying for that.

Yet let no man strive or reprove another, for your people are as they that strive with the priest. We're really not our brother's keeper anymore. I mean, who are you to tell me anything? Not like what you heard in the sermon at. It also says, among the scriptures he read, it also says in Leviticus 19-15, that you shall judge righteous judgment. Oh yes, you are to judge as you heard. Therefore you shall fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. This is not for lack of technical knowledge.

But on the one hand, as similar to the wealth of the country, almost 90% of the wealth of the world is controlled by less than 5% of the people. And the intelligence, the technical knowledge that you hear about so much, and the great advances in technology, that's pooled in a very small percentage of the intelligence in Silicon Valley and various other places around the world. We're not destroyed because of lack of, quote, academic knowledge that can be available, or technical knowledge.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge. That is the knowledge of God. I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to me, seeing that you have forgotten the law of your God. I will also forget your children. And we see what is happening to our children today. You look in, in Hosea 8 and verse 1, Hosea 8 and verse 1, we used to talk about, it seemed in the church, that God basically selects every president, selects all the world leaders, that kind of thing.

In some cases, I'm very convinced that God raised up rulers, it says very clearly in the book of Judges, that Israel would go astray and God would raise up a judge, and they would be delivered, and they'd go back and they repeated that cycle over and over again. One time, the judge was a woman, Deborah. So there have been these ups and downs throughout history in which God, at times, would raise up somebody to deliver His people.

And perhaps He raised up people who were even not in the church at times for a certain purpose to accomplish His will in the long term. I don't know, but I do know what this is.

In Hosea 8.1, set the trumpet to your mouth, he shall come as an eagle against the house of the Eternal, because they have transgressed my covenant and trespassed against my law. Israel shall cry to me, My God, we know you! Israel has cast off the thing that is good. The enemy shall pursue him.

And there's hardly a place at rest on the face of the earth today. The most restful place that you can find would be Sabbath services in a church of God congregation scattered around the world.

It is the most peaceful place on the face of the earth today, in one of those congregations. Not that every congregation is at peace, as this one or as many others are, but it's the most peaceful place you can find. It would seem we're living in a different world as we sit here this afternoon, and to a large degree we are, because we are citizens of a different kingdom, of a different system. But verse 4, they have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I knew it not.

Not that he doesn't know who the President of the United States is. That would be ridiculous.

But he did not approve. He did not set his hand on that. He did not do it. Of course, he has knowledge, if he has perfect knowledge. And I knew it not, of their silver and their gold, have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. Now, you look at Isaiah chapter 59. So we're taking a look first of all here, you know, where the world will be, where the church will be, where you will be.

This gives you some idea, and a pretty strong idea. It's almost like reading those first four or five verses in Hosea. That's like reading the morning newspaper. Killings, stabbing, crime, and this and that. Big headline this morning, new crime wave stretches across America.

In Isaiah 59 verse 1, Behold, the Lamb's hand does not shorten that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. I mean, God is where he's always been.

And if he were to execute judgment right now, none of us would be able to stand.

But because of his long-suffering mercy and grace, we are able to stand. And if we come before him, as we've heard so often in recent times, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, your fingers with iniquity, lawlessness, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue is muttered perverseness. None calls for justice nor any plead for truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth lawlessness. And it goes on talking about the various behaviors that are extant. Then in verse 14, judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off, for truth has fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yes, truth fails, and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. There will be no one who stands up in the presidential race and takes a stand, a firm stand, against homosexuality. He said, maybe Mike Huckabee, I tend to doubt it, but I doubt anybody really does. And the eternal saw it, and it displeased him, that there was no judgment. And he said that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his arm brought deliverance, salvation unto him, and his righteousness it sustained him. So God says, I'm going to do it myself. And eventually, of course, Jesus Christ is going to return. In the face of the state of the nation, what role, and we could say in face of the state of the world, what role has God called you to fulfill? You know, there was a time in the history of Israel in which the Jews being in captivity, and a form of captivity in Persian Empire, where the evil Haman developed a plot against the Jews to exterminate them, and the young Queen Esther seemed to be the only hope. And her uncle Mordecai urged her to go before the king and plead the case for the nation.

And at first, she didn't want to do it. She said, if I go there and he doesn't invite me in, he'll kill me.

And then she acquiesced after he said, well, if we go, you'll go. You'll go with us.

So she asked those that she knew to fast three days, and she went, and the king invited her in, and she laid out the plot. Of course, Mordecai had challenged her with these words, who knows whether or not you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this? And who knows whether or not you are where you are and has come to this point for such a time as this?

So I want us today to be thoroughly reminded of what God expects of us and view the current moral and spiritual state of the world, our nation. We could bring it down to the local level.

We should be ambassadors for Christ, for the kingdom of God, for the government that will replace the current governmental structure of this world.

There are several strategies that people are employing, and we'll be employing now and in the near future in the face of all of this.

Which position do you think most people will take? So we are going to show several positions that people will take, and then we will say, well, what does God say? What does what position does God want you to take?

Many people will become apathetic and withdraw and make God over in their own image at best. While there are people who have been, they have read the church literatures, some have been members of the church of God, they have gone their own way, they get in trouble and they begin to pray and ask others to pray. But yet, they will not do what needs to be done in their own lives. They've sort of made God over in their own image, and I talked about that recently in a sermon.

But so many will just become lackadaisical, Laodicean, lukewarm, not only in the church, but just in the nation as well, the average, quote, Joe on the street. What can I do?

You know, what can I do? I really can't do anything about this. I'm just going to try to take care of me and my right now. First, look at Revelation 3.14. Revelation 3.14, the letter to the church at Laodicea.

Revelation 3.14, unto the angel, the messenger, the angelos of the church, the Laodicean's right, these things says, the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God, I know your works, you're neither cold nor hot.

This attitude of neither cold nor hot will permeate especially the Western democracies and the people thereof until they finally get somebody they can rally around like the beast and vulture prophet. But in the meantime, they will fiddle while Rome burns, as the old saying goes.

It is said that World War II, toward the end, as the Russians were coming in toward Germany and Munich and Frankfurt and places like that, where there was still some of the German elite and hierarchy that they were still going to the opera and doing this, that, and the other, and you could hear the sound of the guns off in the distance as they slowly marched from the east to the west into Germany. Sort of like the thunderstorm that came in this morning, I started hearing it around 5 30 and then louder at 6, it came on across.

And people bury their heads in the sand and deny what's happening.

So then, because you are lukewarm, well, I skipped 15, that's most important. I know your works, that you're neither cold or hot. I would that you were cold or hot.

So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will spew you out of my mouth because you say I am rich. There there's a lot of symbolism here that I'm not going to go into in detail.

Laodicea was a very rich city. A lot of rich people lived there, Jewish people with gold.

They had a medical school there that developed a famous ISAF, or I really think it was more of a powder. They also had a type of sheep, a black sheep, that produced beautiful wool. And so, what the great weakness of Laodicea was that they had no fresh water supply of their own.

Water came into the city by conduit from afar off, and by the time it got to Laodicea, it was lukewarm. And so, that analogy of the physical with the spiritual here, because you say I am rich and increased with goods, have need of nothing, know not that you are wretched, miserable, poor, and blind and naked, covering all of the gold, the ISAF, the wool.

I counsel you to buy me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich in white raiment. Of course, white raiment is symbolic of the righteousness of the saints, that you may be clothed, and that the shame of your nakedness, your sins, do not appear, and anoint your eyes with ISAF, that spiritual ISAF that you may be able to see spiritually. And as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore, and repent. So, in the face of lukewarmness, in the face of apathy, what is the anecdote? What does God say? God says, be zealous and repent.

And it's ironic and paradoxical, in one sense, as you see these things approaching, that it seems, in some cases, the people of God become more like fragmented and rocked by to and fro, by every wind of doctrine, sort of running to and fro like the people in the world.

So, this apathy leads to the attitude of, you know, things are so big and they're so far gone, I cannot make any difference. But you can, and each one of us, we have great power. And that power is our communication with God through prayer. And it will be eventually the prayers of the saints, to be one of the things, like in Revelation 8, that prayers of the saints are poured out before God, just before the trumpet plagues begin to be poured out.

Another thing that many will be doing, and this is what so many live for now, they will try to escape from reality by partying. Please turn to Matthew 24 in verse 36.

One of the news items this morning was that McCartney, one of the Beatles, says that he is going now to stop smoking pot.

He wants to set an example for his children and his grandchildren, Paul McCartney, of the Beatles. I mean, there is a new epidemic sweeping the world from Australia to hear from the other side of the world of this ice myth. It makes people do all kinds of weird things. In Matthew 24, they will try to escape from reality by partying. Verse 36.

But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only, but as in the days of Noah, as in the days of Noah were so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be, what were they doing? For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, giving and marriage until the day that Noah entered into the Ark, sort of like the Russian army approaching Germany. And they knew not until the flood came and took them away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. So many will be partying.

They will join the crowd. They will be saying, everybody else is doing it. This is the favorite mantra of many teenagers. Go back a little bit to about verse 8 or 9 here in Matthew 24.

Verse 7, it says, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, pestilence, famines, different places. These are the beginnings of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, shall kill you, and shall be hated of all nations for my namesake. Then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another to save their own skin. Of course, that happened World War II with, as the Nazis came to knock on the door of various homes.

Do we have any Jews in here? Do we have any Christians in here? I hear that your mother is a Christian. Is that so?

You'd be willing to turn her over? Will you be able, willing to betray your own mother and father, brother, sister, neighbor?

Many shall be offended, shall betray one another, shall hate one another, and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many, and because iniquity shall abound.

Everybody is joining in. This is what they're doing. Well, their parents let them do that.

Why can't I? I mean, they're in the church, too. How many times have I heard that?

Oh, you're so cruel. You're so this. You're so that.

Now, we have not only a peer group, now we also have many parents who are held hostage by their children. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. See, what does God say about that? When all of this is going on, what are we to do? Are we to join in with the crowd? You look at 2 Corinthians chapter 6, 2 Corinthians. As I said, we'll be viewing, well, this is what the world is doing, and it'll be what some in the church are doing as well. In 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 14, Be you not an equally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion has light with darkness? But what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believes with an infidel? And what judgment has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them, walk in them, and I will be their God. They shall be my people. Wherefore do what? Join in! Everybody else is doing it! Know wherefore come out from among them, and be you separate, says the Eternal, and touch not the unclean thing. And I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. We should read something similar in Revelation chapter 18. Revelation 18, the picture of commercial Babylon, it is sometimes called. It is more than that. You know, you read the first few verses here, a description of Babylon. It doesn't take too much imagination to discern where this is. In Revelation 18, and after these things, I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory. I mean, we've seen a lot of flashes of lightning in recent times.

One night this week it was so much that it just kept basically the room lighted up or lit up, whichever one you want to say.

But that is nothing in comparison to this light. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon, the great has fallen, has fallen, has become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The habitation of devils, demons, foul spirits, fallen spirits. Oh yeah, there's another dimension. Now, the scientists are trying to make out like this other dimension is something like good with great intelligence. Yeah, there's another dimension. It's an evil dimension. The Prince of Persia, as it calls in Revelation chapter 9, the Prince of Grisha. But these demons are at work. For all nations are drunk of the wine of the fierceness of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are wax rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Now, you take the major stockholders and owners, they control 90 percent of the wealth, 75 percent of the wealth are so tied up in major corporations. The lobbyists are there pounding on the doors of the Congress and the legislators and the political people. And I heard another voice from Heaven saying, notice where this voice comes from, come out of her, my people, that you be not partaker of her sins, that you receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached unto Heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. So while they're partying, what does God say? He says, come out.

Another thing that they will be doing, they will be saying, my Lord, delays is coming. You know, this thing, this Christian thing about Jesus Christ is coming, and He's going to set things right.

You know, that is just a man-made fable. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3.

2 Peter chapter 3. And 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1. Many will be saying, my Lord, delays is coming. Of course, many will be saying that He's not coming at all. Now, the Islamic world is all fired up with the 12th Mahdi. The 12th Mahdi is going to come on the scene, and He is equal to or synonymous with their version of Jesus Christ. Of course, they recognize Jesus Christ saying He was a prophet, just a man.

But they're looking for the 12th Mahdi, who will come in a time of great chaos and confusion, like we see on the world today. And many of those in Iran call the 12ers, for that's taken from the 12th Imam that is supposed to come. But they are convinced that the more chaos and confusion they can create, the quicker that the Mahdi can come.

So they're not concerned that much about warfare and all of that, and got all of these suicide bombers who have been promised 72 virgins in the afterlife. Yet, their women today are held virtually as slaves, and only little slits with their eyes can be seen. How hypocritical can you get?

In 2 Peter chapter 3, this second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you, and both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance, that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the apostles, and of the Lord and Savior, knowing this verse, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own less, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? I mean, we have heard this for years, and years we're in the gun lab.

For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. For this they are willingly ignorant of that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. I mean, they have a testimony. Virtually every nation, every culture on the face of the earth has some story. It's now turned, and much of it is legend, about a great flood that was once upon the earth. And you're going back 2,000 years ago when this was written, those legends, those words were far more prevalent, and I'm sure more accurate to some degree than they are today. So they'll be saying, my Lord delays his coming. Now look at Matthew chapter 24.

See, this is also this part about my Lord delays his coming is in Matthew 24.

Remember that the background, what is the backdrop of Matthew 24? What are the two great questions that were asked? The apostles came to Jesus privately saying, what is the sign of your coming in the end of the age? In Matthew 24 and 25, the Olivet prophecy was Jesus's response to those two questions. In Matthew 24, we just read from 2 Peter chapter 3 verses 4 or 5, my Lord delays his coming. Now we're in Matthew 24, and beginning in 46 of Matthew 24, blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he comes, shall find so doing. So in contrast to throwing up the hands and saying all is lost, God expects us to continue to hold to the end of the row. Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods, but and if that evil servant shall see in his heart my Lord delays his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants and eat and drink with the drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him in an hour that he's not aware of. And shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Now nobody, basically most people don't go around saying, well my Lord's delaying his coming. I know he's delaying. Most people are, on the other hand, saying it seems that the coming is near because of so many of the events that are taking place in the world and the general condition of the world.

But as the old saying goes, I can't hear what you're saying from what you're doing. So through their behavior they are saying, my Lord, the lazy is coming and smites their fellow servant.

And in the view of that, Chapter 25 is the parable of the ten virgins.

Then shall the kingdom, when? When people are saying, my Lord delays his coming, then shall the kingdom of God be likened unto ten virgins.

We have heard that explained many times. You hath an ear, let him hear.

They begin to smite their fellow servants. But what does God say with regard to whether or not you are in the faith, whether or not you'll endure to the end in view of all of these things, some betraying one another, some hating one another, smiting their fellow servants?

You look at John, 1 John, 4 verse 8. 1 John, chapter 4, verse 8. 1 John, 4, 8, describes the state of being of God, his chief quality. And you could also turn it characteristic. 1 John, chapter 4, verse 8. He that loves not knows not God, for God is love.

For in this was manifested the love of God toward us because God sent his only begotten son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propituation for our sins. So God first loved us. He first made the first step toward reconciliation. Then continuing, verse 16, and we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, won't be afraid, won't be fearful, because we have this assurance. The love of God is in us, and God we are in him, and he is in us, because as he is, so are we in the world.

There is no fear in love, but love cast out fear, because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If any man say, I love God, hates his brother. So what is his anecdote to my Lord Delays his coming? Begins to smite his fellow servant. Well, here it is. He is a liar, for he that loves not his neighbor whom he has seen.

How can he love God whom he has not seen?

I mean, that's one of the simplest lessons of all time, but yet it is, I would say, probably the most violated in the history of Israel and the church, as sobering as that might be. Another thing that will be happening, they will despise the government. In today's world, there's no one or no issue or decision that is not dissected and criticized. You cannot do anything.

Just take a tried example here. The NBA playoffs are going on. You have the Golden State Warriors and their star player is Seth Curry, and he was MVP of the league.

So they have just defeated the Houston Rockets to go to the finals. They have a press conference there for the game. In the last two press conferences, he's brought his little daughter. She looks like she's about three or four, and she steals the show, and she's just all over the place, and the press has gone wild. Well, some are very much against that.

What is he doing having a child down there? I mean, we can't really get our story and get it on time. He's got that child down there. I mean, it's what can you do?

Now, on the other hand, some might be saying, well, we never see anything of his children, his wife, or anything like that. I mean, what kind of ogre is he?

Now we go to 1 Peter chapter 2. In 1 Peter chapter 2, in 2 Peter chapter 2, what 2 Peter does is it does a chronicling from the devil, pre-flood world, post-flood world, Sodom and Gomorrah, of what God did, because people say God is, you know, he's slacking his judgment, he's really out taking a vacation, and so on.

So verse 9, this is 2 Peter 2, 9, The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation or trials, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.

But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness despise government.

Presumptious are they, seph-willed, they're not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing or accusation against them before the eternal. And you know the story of Michael contending for the body of Moses with the devil, you said the Lord rebuke you.

But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption, and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness.

As they that count at pleasure to riot in the day, spots they are in blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings, while they feast with you.

So that will be one of the big characteristics. And so we have, as I walk through the checkout at the dollar store yesterday afternoon, I glanced there at some of the headlines and those various publications of secret affairs and people dying with cancer, and on and on it went with all of the things that people somehow living their lives vicarious through in today's world.

Well, what does God say with regard to this, and especially to the church of God? Look at Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13.

But Hebrews 13 and verse 17.

Of course, there's a lot of people doesn't even in the church don't really like this scripture.

Then you have to put all things in total context.

And now, all things have, I guess, are qualifiers when it comes to physical things, but there's no qualification with regard to the things of God that He tells us to do.

Obey them that have the rule over you, submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, your life essence, as they must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief.

For that is unprofitable for you.

And I had a little break this morning, and one of the most grievous things is to see people go their own way and depart from the faith. Another thing they will be doing is they'll be ripe and easy prey, ripe and easy, easy to be plucked, easy to be picked for deception. Great deception will be upon them. It'll be easy, easy pickings for the devil. Look at 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3.

In 2 Timothy chapter 3, in 2 Timothy chapter 3, in verse 7, I have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And a lot of people make themselves easy prey by being tossed to and fro of every wind of doctoring so-called cafeteria-style religion, shopping to hear that which they want to hear, soothing, smooth things that may be agreed with their position, and not really wanting to hear what the truth of God really is. Look at Matthew 24, verse 24. Then he which had received, that's 25, Matthew 24, 24, for there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect.

Now, of course, it is possible to be deceived. How do you make yourself the very elect? By making your calling an election sure. Second Peter chapter 1, first Peter chapter, well, mainly first Peter chapter 1, devotes itself to making your calling an election sure. A great summary in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. See this deception that is going to come. There will be signs, wonders, miracles. I believe that one of the great attacks that will be coming will be related to this thing of supernatural invasion from outer space, those kind of things, that would be the work and activity of the devil. And there will be great attack, of course, on the Word of God, the veracity, oh, what you thought was always the truth. No, really, it's attributed to this. We just explained it. And so, people make themselves easy prey to deception if, in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 3, let no man deceive you by any means. For that day, that is the day of the coming of Christ, as in verse 2, see in Thessalonica letters were being passed around that it was the day of Christ. Some of the letters apparently were even being signed in the name of Paul. We should read verse 2.

And Paul then, in response to that, says, look, it's not yet. Here's what has to happen.

So in verse 2, that you be not soon shaken in mine, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.

So how important is it to really watch, pray, stay attuned, know what will be happening?

Let no man deceive you by any means. For that day shall not come except there come an apostasia, false teaching, falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worship, so that he sits as God, sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Probably feigning a return of Jesus Christ to the earth, but it'll be V's false prophet system. It's been said that there are holograms now that can and somewhat duplicate what's in Revelation 1 of the light in Matthew 24 as well, the light shining from east to west and every eye seeing and all of that with the technology that is available today. Paul then says there's coming a time in which this one will be revealed.

You notice verse 9, even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved.

You need anchors. You need to put your root down somewhere where they are teaching and preaching, and I'm not talking about a church of this world, as some of the evangelists preach, find you a good Bible-believing church. I mean, you need anchors of the soul. You need the truth, and the minister needs to lay it out there with all deceivableness of unrighteousness and then that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. For this cause, God, I mean, God eventually gets fed up. God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie.

No indefinite article there in Greek. The lie. What is the lie? That that one sitting in that temple many will believe is God, and they'll be deceived. Why? Because they love not the truth.

Another thing that will be happening is that they will deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Not going to spend a lot of time with this. We did in a Bible study recently. Gnosticism, the Gnostics, teaching that Christ has not come in the flesh. Let's read that verse in Revelation. Not Revelation 1 John chapter 4.

In 1 John chapter 4, you are of God little children. This is 1 John 4.4. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They that are of the world, they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world hears them. You are of God, he that knows God hears us. He that is not of God hears us not. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth from the Spirit of error. What is that great Spirit of error? So we start back in verse 1. Beloved, believe not every spirit.

There are lying spirits that go forth. Doctrines of devils and demons, as it talks about in 1 Timothy chapter 4. Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits. How do you try the spirits? Compare it to the Word of God. Does it hold up? Is it true? Whether they are of God, because many false prophets are going out into the world. Hereby we know the Spirit of God from every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is coming, it's present tense as well, coming in the flesh is of God.

And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is not of God, so He's coming in the flesh in that He lives in us as well.

And this is that Spirit of Antichrist, whereof we have heard that it should come, and even now already is at work, or already in the world.

Another thing they will be doing, the leaders will try to whitewash a rotten fence.

Look at Ezekiel chapter 13. Ezekiel chapter 13. In Ezekiel 13, here is a powerful condemnation of the leaders of the land referred to as prophets as well. The prophets, see, God raised up in Old Testament times, the prophets and the priests were to teach the people the law of God.

The prophets and the priests were to prepare the people, for whatever would come their way. In Ezekiel 13 verse 4, O Israel, your prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. You have not gone into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, the Lord says, and the Lord has not sent them. And they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have you not seen a vain vision? Have you not spoken a lying divination, whereas you say, the Lord says it, albeit I have not spoken it. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, you have spoken vanity and seen lies. Therefore, behold, I'm against you, says the Lord God. Verse 10, because even because they have seduced my people, saying peace, and there was no peace. And one built up a wall, and low others dopped it with untempered mortar.

I mean, you hear some of these military people talking today, and you absolutely win. Mosul, not Mosul, but Ramadi fell to ISIS, passed two or three weeks ago.

So, the ISIS came in, they were led by 22 suicide bombers. ISIS had comparatively few troops. The Iraqis, also supported by some of the Iranians, had 3,000 people massed there at Ramadi.

But as ISIS came in, they fled and ran. They ran away. They left the city. Then people, the civilians, had to begin to flee. And they started toward Baghdad. And now Baghdad is trying to keep them out. But the point about this is that our military people, our leaders, got on the airways and said, oh, it's no big deal.

I mean, you know, they get a little, they get a little, we get a little, we fall back, we come up, we go back. It's incredible. I mean, don't they know the suffering, the misery, the lives that are at stake? So that's the next one. The leaders will try to whitewash rotten thins, as we see here. Because they say peace, there was no peace. One built up a wall, and low others dobbed it with untempered mortar. Say unto them which dob it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall, and there shall be an overflowing shower, and you, O great hailstone, shall fall, and a stormy wind shall rend it.

Another thing, you look at chapter 22 of Ezekiel, they will not discern between good and evil. Oh no, you don't discern between good and evil today.

No way. And of course, the comeback of those who have any Bible belief, so called, in quotes, is, oh, God loves everybody. You know the line. You heard the story.

God loves the sinner, hates the sin, but no. Today's world, he loves both.

In Ezekiel chapter 22, 23, and the church of God is supposed to be in the watchman role, as Ezekiel was in the watchman role at that time, and the word of the Lord came unto me, Ezekiel 22, 23, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto her, you are the land that is not cleansed, and arraigned upon in the day of indignation. There is a conspiracy of our prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They devoured souls, they've taken the treasure and precious things, they've made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, profane my holy things, they've made no difference, no difference, between the holy and the profane. Neither have they showed difference between clean and unclean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. And of course, God wants us to make a distinction. Once again, sermonette, a judgment between what is right, what is wrong. Moral issues such as homosexuality, abortion, pornography, illicit sex, have been made into political issues or human rights, as opposed to moral issues. They have become a matter of, quote, political rights, human rights, and we should love all peoples regardless. As I heard a little bit of the speech of O'Malley this morning, Martin O'Malley, former governor of Maryland, announcing that he is going to run for president, he said, and we have 11 million Americans living in the shadows. We need to pass comprehensive immigration laws. You see, we have talked about when you have a flux of millions of people from different cultures, backgrounds, ways of thinking and living, and on and on it goes, flooding to your country, then you can expect great upheaval, chaos, and confusion. It takes time to build a culture that is based upon righteousness.

Another thing that will happen is their conscience will be seared with a hot iron, because they will not do what they know to do that is right. People will forsake another thing, they will forsake parenting. You look at Isaiah back a few pages. You look at Isaiah back a few pages.

Forsaking parenting and, I might add, leadership.

See, I almost today started, well, not today, but two days ago, maybe it was yesterday, a sermon today on the will to lead. Most people have lost the will to lead, and those who volunteer to lead oftentimes are not really qualified to do it, but at least somebody is willing to step out. Jesus Christ had a will to lead.

He went into the temple, He drove out the temple changers, He challenged the Pharisees, the scribes at every turn. In Isaiah chapter 3 verse 1, For behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, is take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, the whole stay of water, the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the prudent and the ancient.

The captain of 50, the honorable, the counselor, the cunning artificer, the eloquent orator, and I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.

And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, every one by his neighbor.

The child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable.

There's no respect. Respect is an archaic word. It's a word of the past.

When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, you have clothing, you be our ruler. I mean somebody, please stand up and let ruin be under your hand. In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer, for in my house is neither bread nor clothing, and make me not a ruler of the people. For Jerusalem is ruined, Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord to provoke the eyes of his glory, that show their countenance, this witness against them. And they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Oh really, they're proud of it, and it is applauded.

I was watching just a little clip this week. One of the morning shows, it was Meredith of the Era, had this gay guy on, and they ran this clip of this big kiss between two men. And he said, it is his time that we shall get a kiss on television. And the audience clapped like wild.

They show their countenance, this witness against them, and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul, for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

Say you to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for the Lord of his hands shall be given him, as for my people. Children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. Oh, my people! You see, the men, by default, have abdicated their responsibilities of what they should be doing, and being the spiritual leaders in this nation and their families.

My people, they which lead you, cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths. The Lord stands up to plead and stands to judge the people, and he will enter into judgment. So, brethren, this is a little taste of what lies before us and some of the things, some of the challenges that we'll be facing and what God expects us to do. God expects us to turn to him with our whole hearts, with obedience and prayer, and it will make a difference. Remember the two great commandments. You shall love the Lord God with all your heart, mind, and soul. The second is like unto it, you shall love your neighbors yourself. On these two, hang all the law and the prophets.

Those who are living at the very end of the age of the events that we have talked about here this afternoon will be thrust on the front lines. They will stand before judges and kings, and it will turn unto them for a testimony.

And Luke 21 says that God will provide if we have prepared.

You can remember that. God will provide if we have prepared.

No, we are not running for office. We're not running for office for the presence of the United States. Most of you probably won't vote, but we're ambassadors of a system that will restore the government of God on this earth. And what shall we do when we move into that capacity?

We'll appear here in Isaiah. Let's turn to Isaiah 61. We'll close with this. It gives us a glimpse of what lies ahead.

This is where when Jesus Christ went back to Nazareth after he was baptized, he stood up in the synagogue. He went to where they kept the scrolls, and he opened the scroll to these verses here from Isaiah.

The Spirit of the Lord of God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

And he sat down. That's as far as he read. Now the rest of this lies ahead.

And the day of the vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, that's the church, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the Spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. They shall build the oval waste. They shall raise up the former desolations. They shall repair the waste cities, the desolation of many generations.

And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the aliens shall be your plowmen and your vine dressers. You shall be named the priest of the Lord. He will make us kings and priests. Revelation 5, 10. Men shall call you the ministers of our God. You shall eat the riches of the nations, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves, for your shame shall be have for your shame you shall have double, and for confusion they shall rejoice in your portion. Therefore, in their land they shall possess the double. Everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I, the Eternal, love judgment. I hate robbery for burnt offering, and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord has blessed. And I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decked himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorned herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in the spring to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. May God hasten that day.