You
Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's great to see everybody here tonight.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started.
Once we've found our seats, let's grab a hymnal.
And for tonight's first song, we'll go to song number 406.
Song number 406.
Who is on the Lord's side?
Let's all sing that out together on the first 406, who is on the Lord's side.
Lord, thank you so much for this great church.
Thank you for the opportunity to gather here
and hear your preaching word, Lord.
And Lord, we just ask now that you bless the singing
and bless the service and it's in Jesus' name we pray.
All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 323.
Song number 323.
More about Jesus.
Good singing. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you didn't already get a bulletin, you would like one.
Slip to your hand real high, nice and high.
We're still working in Jude.
We're on verse eight on the inside.
Church service times and soul-winning times.
Please make sure you're updating our church stats on the right.
We have the list of our expecting ladies.
Please be in prayer for them.
This upcoming Sunday is going to be Father's Day.
Then we have a Shreveport Marathon.
There is a sign-up sheet on the foyer.
Brother Sam Foley is also helping organize a Solonium Marathon in Springdale, Arkansas.
It's going to be July 4th weekend.
A couple days there.
If you're interested, see Brother Sam about the details of that.
And then there's also a Lancaster, Texas Solonium Marathon.
That's actually just in our neighborhood.
It's really only like 20 minutes away from here.
So we'll be doing that July 19th.
Our men's retreat is August 14th through the 16th.
Pastor Enrique Reyes is going to be preaching for us at the men's retreat.
Our FBBF conference is August.
It's actually the 27th through the 31st.
That might have been my fault as far as putting the date in there,
but that's going to be that Wednesday through Sunday.
And actually, I think we're going to have a preacher every single night, so we're going to have one Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, twice on Sunday, so it's going to be a lot of fun, a lot of excitement, and a lot of activities.
You'll get your fill of church, all right, and it's going to be a lot of fun.
Our teen summer activities are going to start this Saturday at 5.30 to 10 at the church,
and so looking forward to just allowing them to have a little bit of fun, some games, dinner
will be provided.
It is for teenagers only, so there's not going to be any activities or food for anybody other
ages.
If you are between 20 and 25 and you do want to help, you need to see Brother Milstead
That's pretty much all we have as far as those announcements on the back
We have our prayer list continue to pray for the Carlson miss Rebecca and
David's health their father their mother and father continue to pray for the Millers for their friends mom's cancer treatments
If you can continue to pray for the Scott family for brother Horace and miss Grace continue to pray for brother
Garcia's health if you pray for miss Larky and then you could pray for brother Brad's upcoming surgery sister's health
We also have miss Sheila Morris. We've been praying for brother Diego's friend
Miss Cindy was also asking for prayer for her friend Angela and her mom and we're praying for brother Jared's co-worker Josh health I
Continue to pray for the recovery for brother Samson. We're praying for recovery for brother first dad
Also, if you'd pray for the Foley's dad who has kidney disease if you could also pray for brother Perez's son Elijah
And for his enlistment and then if you could pray for brother Phillips wife Karina, and then I found out I
Think either today or yesterday, but
One of the attorneys that had helped us
Mr. Weaver has actually come under serious
health issues of Lou Gehrig's disease and it's very likely they'll probably pass away soon
but if you just pray for him that
the last you know a little bit of his life he would
Be comforted and he definitely helped us a lot and was a blessing unto us. And so if you just pray for
Mr. Weaver, so that's pretty much all I have as far as prayer requests. We'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for our church. Thank you for all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you please be with them during their pregnancies. Please help their delivery. Thank you for those who have recently given birth.
I pray that you just bless their children and their recovery.
I pray that you would also bless those that are recovering from surgery or illness, that you would continue to allow them to get full recovery.
And those who are still struggling with various illnesses and sicknesses, I pray that you could just give them miracle if possible, that you give them health.
If not, that you just at least give them patience and comfort during this tribulation.
Those who are ready to perish, I pray that you would just comfort them during their
last few moments here on earth. I pray that you'd also bless those who are needing help with their
work or with their jobs that you'd please, please help them. Please also help our upcoming
soul-winning events. Keep us safe as we go. Please help give us the boldness to preach the gospel.
Help us to get many people saved.
Pray that you bless our evangelists and the Philippians,
that you continue to bless their work over there,
and that you would continue to use this church
for your honor and glory, and this is Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We'll go ahead and sing our song of the week.
We have Where the Spirit Blows,
and so it's in our Psalm binders.
If you can get that out, our special hymns in Psalm binders,
Where the Spirit Blows.
alright that was where the spirit blows where the spirit blows in your special binder it's all
singing out
We will go, go, go, we will go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go,
The spirit does.
We were.
place you're being passed around. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 24. That's the
book of Matthew chapter number 24.
Matthew 24 the Bible reads and Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him
The buildings of the temple and Jesus said unto them see not all these things
Verily, I say unto you
There shall not one be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down
And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives the disciples came unto him privately saying
Tell us when these shelf these things shall be and what shall be the signs?
And what shall be the signs of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many.
And ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars.
See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For a nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, and diverse places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
to be afflicted, and shall be killed you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for
my name's sake.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall
endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
And this is the gospel of the kingdom.
shall be preached in all the world for witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand, then let them which be in Judea
flee into the mountains, let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of
his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes, and woe unto
them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days, but pray ye that your flight
For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time
Know nor ever shall be and accept those days should be shortened there shall no flesh be saved
But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened
Then if any man shall say unto you lo here is Christ or there believe it not for they shall arise false
Christ and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders and so much that if it were possible
They shall deceive the very elect behold. I have told you before
Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth.
Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not.
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shininth even to the west, so shall also
the coming of the Son of Man be.
For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon
shall not give her light, and the star shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven
shall be shaken.
the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn,
and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his
elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn a parable of the fig tree,
when his branches yet tender and put forth leaves ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye when
ye shall see all these things know that it is near even at the doors. Verily I say unto you,
This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
But of that day and hour, no man knoweth, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
But as the days of Noah were, so shall also this coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and you not until the
flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field, but one shall be taken and the other left.
women shall be grinding at the mill, but one shall be taken, and the other left.
Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
But know this, that if the good men of the house had known in what watch the thief would
come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh.
Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his house, to
give them meat and due season?
whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you that he shall
make him ruler over all his goods. But, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart,
my Lord, delayeth his coming, and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink
The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of,
and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for setting fast to Baptist Church. Thank you for the chapter of the Bible.
Thank you for all the salvation we've gotten. I pray that you'd bless Pastor Shelley,
fill him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, to preach your word unto us and help us to pay attention to receive it.
And I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen.
So, last week we spent a lot of time going through Matthew 24.
We kind of ended in chapter, I'm sorry, verse 31, and so we're kind of picking up here in
verse 32.
The Bible says, Now learn a parable of the fig tree when his branches yet tender and
put it forth leaves, he know that summer is nigh.
So likewise ye when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the
doors.
What is he talking about being nigh?
of Jesus Christ coming.
That was what was brought up
at the beginning of this particular passage.
Look at verse three again.
It says,
Tell us when shall these things be
and what shall be the sign of thy coming
and of the end of the world.
So Jesus Christ is kind of answering
a few different questions in this particular passage.
And in fact, he doesn't end in chapter 24,
chapter 25 is a continuation
of those particular questions being answered.
And so we're talking about future things.
things that are going to happen when Jesus Christ is coming back and then we have the quote end of
the world. This is what we believe is the last seven years of the world as we know it. Daniel's
70th week as it's prophetically referred to in some cases and Jesus is describing those first
three and a half years then kind of that great tribulation period which is specifically mentioned
I heard someone have this idea like,
oh, the Bible never says great tribulation.
Well, it actually does right there.
So, you know, great tribulation is a biblical concept.
This is a heated, intense period of human history,
which is going to be the most martyrs
and most persecution that's ever happened
and ever will happen.
According to the Bible,
this is going to be the greatest martyrdom
to have ever happened.
And
You know, here in verse 32, it's talking about a fig tree
when it's branches yet tender.
It put forth leaves and you know that summer is nice.
Saying like, you can kinda tell when fruit
is gonna be born of a tree.
You kinda can tell the seasons by trees
and by vegetation in the same way
that when you start seeing all these events happen,
we can kinda have an idea, okay, it's about to happen.
So it's saying, summer hasn't happened in verse 32.
You can tell it's about to be summer and the same way when we go through these events
We'll know that hey the Great Tribulation is about to happen even though the Great Tribulation
Hasn't happened and try to prepare ourselves for such a time
Especially considering the fact that there's gonna be no buying or selling you have to receive a mark on your hand your forehead
the Bible says that
The Antichrist is going to basically be ruling over the entire earth, so it's going to be
a great time of distress, tribulation, difficulty, and so it's going to be something you want
to run away from.
If you're in Judea, you don't want to be in that part of the world, if for some reason
you're in that part of the world.
So there's some things that you can do to prepare yourself in anticipation of this, but
those that are paying attention will be ready for this, those that aren't, pretty soon it
will be summer.
or it'll be winter all of a sudden.
They weren't even paying attention that it was summer.
So he's just saying we can tell when things are gonna happen
if we're paying attention.
Verse 34, he says,
Verily I see in you this generation should not pass
till all these things be fulfilled.
Now,
Some Preterists have tried to twist this to say,
oh, this generation meaning the current generation,
all these things are gonna come to pass,
and that's why they lean towards a 70 AD fulfillment
of scripture.
Yet, we don't see all of these things being fulfilled.
We don't see Christ actually having returned.
We don't have all the things that happened
in the book of Revelation actually happened.
So, just by default, that can't be true.
Additionally, I tried to make it clear that if that was the real fulfillment, well, then how can we have all of these?
events of greater persecution and greater martyrdom
than that period of human history.
I mean, we've seen just incredible amounts of persecution
in the 300 AD period and era of time.
We have even further into the future,
greater fulfillments, the Armenian genocide,
other kinds of genocides where you see tons
of Christians martyred, killed in bigger ways,
bigger numbers, bigger persecutions.
Even in North Korea currently,
just tons of Christians being persecuted.
tens of thousands, whereas, you know, 70 AD was more about
vengeance against unbelieving Jews for having rejected Jesus,
way more than it was about Christians getting martyred for being
a follower or disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. So again,
the 70 AD view is just, it's really a narrow-minded,
kind of just absent of history and facts and logic
and really just a brain in their head. It's really a bad view.
You want to stay away from churches that are going to be
preterous because if they're that screwed up on end times,
they're going to be screwed up on a lot of other things,
a lot of other views.
So what does this mean then this generation?
I believe what it's simply saying is that all of the events
we write about are going to happen
in a particular generation.
There is going to be a special generation
where all of these events take place,
it's not gonna take place over multiple generations.
It's not gonna be like 100 years of time
that all of these events happen,
but rather it's gonna happen in one particular generation.
And there's gonna be a special generation
for this end times period.
Now, we don't know when that is.
We just know there will be a special generation.
Now, keep your finger, go to Esther chapter four,
go to Esther chapter four.
Some people are afraid of the end times, but you know
Someone is gonna have to go through it someone's gonna have to go through it and to me in some ways
It's kind of special. It's special to be the the group that gets to go through that
It's not something to look down upon but rather it's a privilege. It's a special opportunity and you know some aspects of it aren't great
But at the same time, you know, we we have other generations that are like this. What about Daniel and his three friends?
That's a special generation, but admittedly nobody would want to have gone through that
nobody wants to have to be taken in in captivity and brought into Babylon and
the implication of the fact that their master is the master of the Unix kind of has a pretty negative connotation
if you really think about that one and
Who would really want to sign up for that?
The Bible even talks about just eunuchs in general that it's kind of like they
missed out on maybe some things in life, but God has a special gift or a
special award for the eunuchs that serve God. And in fact, some people are eunuchs
because they were born eunuchs or made eunuchs. That's kind of the implication
with Daniel, they're made eunuchs. But then we have people like the Apostle Paul
who make themselves a eunuch for the cause of Christ and ends up doing great
And so, you know, no matter who you are,
you're gonna always have suffering,
difficulty, tribulations.
You're gonna have give and take.
You can't have it all.
You don't get it all.
As Americans, I think we probably struggle
with the most wanting to have our cake and eat it too
in life, because we just have so much luxury
and we have so much joy and fun in our country
and there's just so many cool things to do.
We can travel everywhere.
But here's the thing.
If you spend your whole life chasing that, you end up probably won't do much for God.
And if you end up doing a lot for God, you probably will miss out on a lot of that
and have to sacrifice and say no to a lot of that because the reality is you can't have both.
And for Esther, you know Esther didn't get to decide that she was going to be a captive.
Esther didn't necessarily get to decide to have the family situation she had.
She is being raised by an extended family member, Mordecai, not her mother and father.
She ends up getting drafted into the wife pool for King Ahasuerus, which
is kind of good and kind of weird, you know, if you think about it,
because he's also divorced. He's divorced Vashti, and now he's just
seeking for some chicks, so she has to go through some, like,
Miss Universe pageant or something like that.
And, you know, that's got to be, that could be degrading, maybe, in a sense,
but at the same time, it's also probably kind of special because she's
considered, arguably, the greatest woman.
of all the women to choose from that are maidens at this time.
She gets brought into the household of King Ahasuerus,
becomes the queen.
And then it kind of seemed like, oh, everything's great again.
But now, all of a sudden, there's a law passed
where her and her entire family and all of her friends
and all of her relatives and every one of her kindred
is going to be murdered and slaughtered by and large.
And she's nervous about what's going to happen.
And so she's going to ask King of Hazarus for permission
to not allow her all of her people to be killed.
But just by asking the question, she could be killed.
Just by seeking a question from her husband she could be killed and so she's nervous about this and Mordecai is kind of
Giving her an admonition here in chapter 4
I want you to look at a few verses here look at verse 13 then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther think not
With thyself that thou should escape in the king's house more than all the Jews
He's saying hey, don't get nervous here and don't ask the question because just because you might be the queen
You're not gonna necessarily escape
this this tribulation this great tribulation and if you understand anything about the book of Esther the book of Esther is actually an
End Times book it actually it follows kind of the exact same timeline of all these events and you'll kind of understand that all of these
Things are shadow fulfillments of what's gonna happen in the future if we think about the players here that are in the book of Esther
Haman is a
shadow of the Antichrist and Haman giving this declaration to kill all the Jews
and slaughter all the Jews is similar to what the Antichrist is going to do where
the Antichrist is going to ask for the slaughtering of all of the Christians in
the world and Mordecai in the story
I believe is the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe that he is kind of symbolized
as the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who is Esther then?
Esther is representative of the church
and she's represents that of godly Christians.
And she's brought into the kingdom
to ask permission of a hazardous,
which is the father for this request.
And it's saying, hey, if you just hide yourself,
if you don't do anything, you're not gonna escape.
actually asking permission and being bold
is what actually didn't give her deliverance.
Which again, to me, confirms my personal opinion
that in the end times, those who are seeking the Lord,
asking God for favor and being bold
are the ones that are most likely going to be delivered
and endure through the end
as opposed to those that are hiding and afraid and cowards.
But that's just, you know, if you kind of understand the book of Esther,
a lot of these things will kind of start making sense.
It says in verse 14,
For if thou all together holdest thy peace at this time,
Then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place,
But thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.
And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time
as this, and it's a really famous line in the book of Esther,
but really we can apply this to ourselves and we can apply this to
future prophetic events where who knows what the generation is going to be that's been chosen
for such a time as this, for the time of the end times, to be that bright shining light in the
end times, to go out there and have courage and faith and do great exploits for the Lord
generations are current or the next generations will not be discouraged by
the end times but rather will say well maybe you were chosen for such a time
as this.
And I believe there is a special generation for the end times and it's a privilege to be counted worthy to suffer for the cause of Christ and to suffer for such things.
And God actually looks at you as being special, not as like, well, I'm kind of done with these people, let's just get it over with.
No, no, no, he raises up a special generation of bold and courageous Christians like Daniel, like Shadrach, like Meshach and Abednego.
damage they're delivered.
The bold ones are delivered again in the book of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, which are not the book,
but the story of them, in the book of Daniel.
And again, it's showing again, though,
those that are bold, those that are courageous,
those that are thrown in the lion's den,
they're delivered again.
Whereas those that are cowardly, are weak,
are like a Raja and goes and runs into Egypt.
Well, then they get drug out and they get destroyed.
And Egypt, of course, is a picture of the world.
So we don't want to be like that.
We want to be like a Jeremiah.
And yeah, we might get thrown in the dung pit.
Yeah, we might go to prison, yeah, some bad things could happen, but it's better to be bold,
you're more likely to be delivered by being bold than running away and being a coward.
And I would rather, you may still die a martyr by running away as a coward.
So wouldn't you rather have died like willingly dying as opposed to being the one like a little
coward doing nothing and then still getting drugged out and slaughtered? You might as well just be bold.
And you only got a few days left and you know getting your head cut off isn't the worst thing imaginable
All right, I know that it sounds bad
But honestly of all the ways to die
It's really not as bad as a lot of the ways that people die right now dying from terminal cancer
dying from all kinds of
Dementia's and all kinds of other sicknesses and illnesses drowning
catching on fire.
I mean, there's a lot of worse ways to go right now.
And so being tortured, you know,
getting your head cut off is kind of like, all right.
I mean, a lot of people that have gotten their heads cut off.
I've never heard them complain afterwards.
So, I mean, you got that, right?
So that was a positive.
Go back to Matthew 24.
Go to Matthew 24.
I mean, someone's gonna get their head cut off.
Let's just be honest, all right?
I don't know who it is.
But, at the end of the day, there's also a lot of people that are going to be raptured.
And I tend to believe that those are going to be bold and trying to do things for the
Lord and trying to like...
accomplished something are the ones that are going to be delivered. Now again,
I'm not saying you shouldn't necessarily use discretion. I'm not saying that you
can't be wise. Obviously Jesus took careful pathways to go around during his
time. Obviously you may not necessarily, you know, antagonize the Antichrist on
purpose or something like that. But at the end of the day, you know, I think
just at least still trying to do some work,
still trying to accomplish something in those last days,
that's what's really, really important
and not just going and hiding and doing nothing,
burying your talent under the earth or something like that.
If you look at verse 35, the Bible says,
heaven and earth shall pass away.
but my words shall not pass away."
This is a really interesting verse.
It's just kind of tucked into the text here,
but it's a really important text
because, you know, think about this.
Jesus is saying this over 2,000 years ago, approximately,
or around 2,000 years ago, approximately.
And we're still reading those words right now.
I mean, how many things have come and gone, how many people have come and gone, how many
books have come and gone, how many ideas have come and gone, how many kingdoms have come
and gone, and yet we're still reading the words of the Lord Jesus Christ here on this
earth.
And there's something special about the Bible.
Not only is there a special generation for the end times, but there's a special book
for the end times is the King James Bible.
It's the word of God that we have here in our hand and I want you to go to go back to Matthew 5 for a second
Go back to Matthew 5. He says hey that the things that we see right now
They're gonna all pass away, but this is still not going to we're still gonna have the Bible
We're still gonna have the word of God. It's always going to endure
And the Bible even says, look at Matthew chapter number 5 verse 18.
This is already referenced in this book,
for verily I say unto heaven and earth pass,
one jot or one tittle shall know why it's passed from the law,
till all be fulfilled."
So again, isn't that kind of the same message,
heaven and earth are going to pass at some point,
but you know what, the Word of God still hasn't passed.
It's not going to pass away whatsoever.
If you go all the way back to Psalms, chapter 12,
I want to go to Psalms chapter number 12.
It's interesting that the Word of God has stood the test of time 2,000 years from now,
and yet people, a lot of people just don't even have respect for the Bible.
You would think like if it was any other text, people would have a lot of respect for it,
because if you look at other texts that have survived,
antiquity, or we have some manuscript evidence of it in the past.
It's highly praised, highly sought after.
We talk about the epic of Gilgamesh.
We talk about the Iliad and the Odyssey.
We talk about some of these older works of antiquity.
I mean, it's almost just universally just considered just so amazing and so awesome.
But just by comparison, just to kind of give you some stats about the Bible,
number of copies that we have of any book from antiquity, essentially.
So if we just go back hundreds and hundreds of years,
and we say what books do we have that have survived antiquity,
and we have about 1,800...
fragments slash manuscripts of the Iliad and existence that we know about, about 1,800 copies.
It's the second most.
The Bible itself, if we just limited only to Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.
So what we've read, Matthew.
If we limit it only to that, there's over 5,800 of just the New Testament, and that's
just in Greek.
That does not count Latin, that does not count Coptic, that does not count other languages,
and you know what, it also doesn't count the Old Testament, upon which we have the Dead
Sea Scrolls, and we have many other copies of the Old Testament.
The Bible has been translated into over 3,000 languages.
That's a lot.
DuLingo doesn't have that many options for you, okay?
Billions of copies of the Bible have been printed and translated.
Billions, billions.
It is the number one book as far as its distribution,
as far as its existence from antiquity.
The first book printed on the printing press in Europe by Johannes Gutenberg was the Gutenberg Bible
and it was in 1455 in Mainz, Germany, the first book.
In fact, the Bible was so popular, especially the King James Bible, it basically became known as just the book.
It was just the book because think about it most people especially from the 1800s 1900s a lot of them can't afford a library
They can't afford a cornucopia of literature and so everybody just had
Bible and that was the only thing that they had and so it was just known as quote the book
Why because that was the one book that people have you go home?
Hey, do we have any books? No, you have the book and it was what the King James Bible?
You go to school and it's like hey, what book are we gonna use?
We're gonna use the book the King James Bible you go to court and you laid your hand on the book the King James Bible
And it just, it basically was just, if you looked at it and say, in fact, mine just says it right here, it just says Holy Bible.
And in fact, for the most of the part of history, especially English history, it didn't say King James Version, it just said Holy Bible.
It was the translation, it was the book, it's the Word of God, and it just spread over all of the earth.
It is nithy, even in my mouth and in my heart, the Word of Faith which we preach, it was the King James Bible.
And look, the Bible has always been like that throughout history.
And the Bible gives us a promise of this in Psalm chapter number 12.
Now, I kind of want to read actually a lot of this for a second.
It says in verse 1,
who have said, with our tongue will we prevail,
our lips are our own, who is Lord over us?
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
now will I rise, sayeth the Lord,
I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
The words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in the furnace of earth,
purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord,
thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
The wicked walk on every side
when the vile's men are exalted.
Now we read the whole Psalm because there's some elements here
Notice, number one, that pretty much just universally and throughout every generation,
there's never ever like a lot of great people for the godly man, Ciceth.
I mean, the reality is, it's hard to find godly men.
And what's one of the attributes of godly men?
They're faithful.
But notice the faithful fail from among the children of men.
What are men like?
What is humanity like?
Well, they speak vanity.
Everyone with his neighbor.
And it's just meaningless.
Flattering lips and a double heart, do they speak?
They say, yeah, I'm going to go to church.
Yeah, I'm going to be a soul winner.
Yeah, I love the Bible.
Yeah, I love the things of God.
But you know what? They have a double heart.
They just say things they don't really mean and they're just gonna stab you in the back. They're gonna disappoint you
They're gonna let you down
Mankind is just the same and it's funny because I was like listening to a sermon
Because I brought up the sermon
Sunday I brought up a sermon called be instant by Mark Turner now
I thought it was actually called six flags, but that's not the name of the sermon
That was just a clip from the sermon
But I was listening to the sermon by Mark Turner called be instant and it's funny because that's the only verse that he uses
In his entire sermon is the is the when it says be instant in season out of season
He like reads the verse and then just never brings it up ever again
And he just yells and screams for like 40 minutes
And honestly, when I was listening to it,
I was just thinking like,
I have never preached this hard
or anywhere close to it ever.
Like, you know, people like think like,
oh, the new IFB is this like hard preaching,
crazy, wild people.
And I'm thinking like, dude, the old IFB,
the real old IFB 20, 30 years ago,
they preached crazy, man.
Listen to Jeff Owen's sermon called Struck Blind.
I mean, the guy, we've never said anything like that
about homos that he said.
I mean, he's saying, let's go out and start hunting them down right now, like with shotgun.
Okay?
I've never said that, all right?
He said that.
He said, let's start burning them and all kinds of stuff.
I didn't say it.
I was sitting here silently agreeing, you know, if I was in the room, I'd probably be
screaming, amen, okay?
But I was just listening to the sermon by Mark Turner, and this is what really caught
my attention.
You know, there's, he's kind of like preaching to a lot of like future pastors
because especially at Hiles Anderson College, they're raising like a lot of pastors and preachers
and you know, there's tons of men in there that are going to start churches or are pastors of churches
and he's calling them all out and stuff like that.
And he just kind of said, you know, most of you in here think that you're going to build something
and you're going to never build anything.
And then he's like, in 10 years from now,
most of you won't even like Jack Hiles anymore.
And I was kind of like, I was just kind of thinking like,
man, that sounds like how it is now.
How people just like, you know, just a few years from now, they'll just be completely different.
Lots of haters, lots of disgruntled people, lots of failures, lots of people that just change and turn.
And, you know, it's just how life is.
What is the Bible saying?
The faithful fail from among the children of men.
Why? Because they speak vanity everyone with his neighbor.
They, with flattering lips and a double heart, do they speak?
But you know what?
The God is going to cut off a flattering lip.
He will expose the people that weren't sincere.
You know, think about when the sons of thunder, James and John, come unto Jesus and they're
saying like, we want to sit on your right hand on the left hand.
He's like, can you be baptized with the baptism that I'm going to give you?
And they're like, we are able.
And then he's like, well, then you're going to be baptized.
We'll find out.
Hey, if you think you're going to be a great Christian, we'll figure it out if you really mean it.
We'll figure it out if you're actually steadfast.
We'll figure it out if you're actually godly.
We'll figure it out what you actually mean.
That's why you should also be really careful what you say.
Be careful because God will test those lips and He's going to cut them off.
Notice in verse 4, who have said with our tongue, we will prevail.
Our lips are our own. Who is Lord of Rose?
attitude, and they think nothing can stop them, they're in charge, they don't need anybody.
This is a dangerous, dangerous attitude.
Verse 5, for the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I rise.
God is going to deliver the poor.
He's going to keep him in safety from the people that are attacking him.
And you know what, praise God, he's so faithful.
He constantly preserves us and preserves churches like us
and Christians like us who maybe are,
let's just be honest, we're not capable of defending ourselves.
We're not capable of preserving ourselves.
And there's these horrible, awful, evil attacks,
but God just keeps them safe, keeps them going
and just keeps destroying those attackers.
Gives them like one in 17 trillion chance,
skin diseases and stuff like that, you know?
But then he brings up this thing in verse 6,
the words of the Lord are pure words,
as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times,
thou shalt keep them of the Lord,
thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
Now this is kind of an interesting passage
because if you look at this and other translations
of the Bible and the modern English or the modern versions,
they'll change this passage
and they'll say something different.
And a lot of times what they'll do is that they're kind of like
getting rid of, thou shalt keep them to, to basically just
saying like the poor are going to be delivered or something like that.
In fact, I didn't think about it.
I have a, I think I have a John MacArthur Bible here.
I don't know what this is, New King James.
I'm curious what it says in this one, but, you know, the King
James is kind of unique in the way that it renders this and the fact
that I think personally when I read this, it just sounds like
it's talking about the words.
Yeah, I guess the new King James still says the same thing, praise God.
But if you look up in the commentaries and stuff like that,
sometimes they'll even change it to the poor or something like that.
You look at the ESV, you look at the NIV at this verse,
and a lot of times they'll say the poor are going to be delivered,
the poor are going to be saved or something like that.
But the way the King James is rendering this,
I think obviously is accurate and is the right way to render it,
but I think it's because it's supposed to allude to the words.
And if we think about this, let's just insert poor people for a second.
Okay, just play with me on this thought experiment for a second, okay?
God is going to keep poor people from this generation forever?
Well, wait a minute, no poor person has survived
since the time that Psalm 12 was written until now.
They all died.
So it doesn't really make a lot of sense to just insert poor people because then it's kind of meaningless
Plus, I don't think it's trying to say like God just wants to make sure poor people exist or something like that in every generation
It's if you think about it. This is what he's trying to say
He's saying I am going to keep the Word of God literally from this generation forever
And in the same way that God has the power to keep the Word of God for every generation and
Forever because heaven and earth shall pass away by words should not pass away
It's the same God that can then preserve the poor from the one that puffs at them or from whatever
situations they're going from and going through and then if you want to take it to a literal sense
Obviously those who are saved we will be preserved
forever in the same way that the Word of God is being preserved forever, but I don't like
rendering this as the poor people as a lot of modern texts will do because frankly speaking
the poor people didn't last from this generation forever, but you know it has lasted from Psalm
when it was written till now, Psalm 12, 6 and 7, the words of the Lord, the Word of God,
just like it's saying in Matthew 5, just like it's saying in Matthew 24 that these things are
a misunderstanding of what this text is even trying to say.
Go if you would to Acts chapter 15, go to Acts chapter 15.
So it's kind of like a both in a sense, how God's rendering that,
or what he's kind of describing.
But again, even though man is failing it,
and think about what's the context.
There's not many good people left, faithful people are constantly failing.
But God's gonna just keep the poor that are humble and trusting in him. He's gonna still keep them even though society is really bad
And in the same way even though man is is corrupt and man is a failure and man is not very reliable
Somehow God's able to preserve his word from every generation too because that's that's like the number one argument
If you're gonna say like what's the number one argument I hear of why people don't believe the King James they'll say well
I just think that you can't
You know, man's going to fail, he's not going to keep it translated or you're not going to translate it accurately
or you're not going to preserve it or man's tampered with the Bible or man's corrupted with the Bible.
And they're basically just saying, man is incapable of keeping the Bible and I'm like, you're right.
Just in the same way that the poor guy is incapable of preserving himself from all of these rich enemies.
But you know what? Preserves them, God does.
God preserves the poor and God preserves his word.
And you know what? God will preserve his word from this generation forever.
And there's never been a time when the Bible isn't plenteous.
Because the Bible basically teaches that it's always been available, it's always been accessible.
People have always had opportunity to hear the Bible if they really want to.
And I really like this verse, Acts 15, look at verse 21.
For Moses of old time, hath in every city, them that preach him,
being read in the synagogues every Saturday.
The Bible is saying like, if you go all the way back to Moses,
Every city from then until right now has had what?
Moses being read every Saturday, every Saturday.
Every Saturday, Moses being read in every single city
from antiquity till now.
That's what the Bible says.
And that's what they're saying up to this point.
And then we know from history, which we can go back this far,
till now, hey, the Word of God's been in pretty much every city,
It's gone into 3,000 languages.
We've had the Bible accessible,
yes, more or less in certain parts of time
and history and all that and we get it.
But at the end of the day, hey, the word of God
has just continued to thrive and continue to be available.
And today it's even more available
than it's ever been before.
And I believe this is a special book for the end times
that God has preserved for us.
And he's preserving, he's creating and has in store
a special generation for this end times as well.
You know, I could go to one more place, Isaiah,
but it is basically just saying that the word
that's in his mouth is not going to depart
from his seed or a seed seed from this generation forever
and how the Bible is just basically saying,
we're going to be having the words of Isaiah,
we have the words of Psalms,
we have every single jot and tittle,
as it says in Matthew chapter five,
Matthew 24, my words shall not pass away.
And again, I believe that the King James Bible
is God's word and it hasn't passed away.
We don't believe only that the originals were the Word of God,
we believe God preserved His Word.
So we go beyond believing the original inspiration
to also believing in the preservation of God's Word.
That's why we made a documentary called The Preserved Bible,
because we don't only believe God gave the Word of God to man,
we believe God preserved the Word of God on the man,
and that His words have still existed today
in the King James Bible, specifically as English speakers.
Go back to Matthew 24 and we'll keep going.
It's a very powerful verse and and what is kind of the essence. I think you know again
All these things are temporary the word of God's not temporary. So that's why we should base our lives on
We're reading about in times events we're reading about the destruction of the world
But we shouldn't fear because hey all these things are gonna burn up anyways
We're all gonna die eventually anyways, but the word of God doesn't and that's the only thing we should live for
It makes me think of another verse, and first John will go there and just,
I want to go there in just a second.
But let's keep reading, he says in verse number 36,
but of that day and hour, knoweth no man,
knoweth not the angels of heaven by Father only.
So nobody knows when that day or hour is going to be.
Now the rest of this passage is pretty much continuing this one thought,
and this one thought is that you don't know when it's going to happen.
You know doesn't mean that we should be lazy about it. It actually means you should work really hard
Keep your finger. Let's go to 1st John chapter 2 and I want to go to another passage here
The reality is I think that God doesn't want us to know on purpose
And I think the reason is because if you knew you'd probably be more likely to be lazy
I think it's kind of like
You know maybe your dad gives you some chores to do around the house if he said hey, I'm coming home at 6
Well, then a lot of times kids will wait until like 5 5 30 to start doing stuff because they're like well
We know when he's coming home
Or, you know, you kind of have that horror in the book of Proverbs that's talking about
the Goodman, how he's not going to come home until the appointed day.
And so she's just doing all this terrible stuff because she kind of has an idea.
But you know, would this woman have been as likely to do what she did if she didn't know
when the Goodman was coming home?
Or if the Goodman could come at home at any time?
not necessarily she might be afraid and she might encourage her to have better behavior and so in the same way
I think that God wants us to have better behavior because frankly speaking
We just don't know when these things are gonna happen. Look what it says in verse number
12 I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake
I ride in you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I ride in you young men because you have overcome the wicked one.
I ride in you little children because you have known the father.
I have written in you fathers because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I have written in you young men because you are strong and the word of God abideth in you.
and you've ever come the wicked one love not the world and neither the things that are in the world
if any man loved the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of
the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of God abideth
What is it saying that's going to pass away?
Specifically, it's saying, hey, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride
of life, all the things that you're proud of, all the pride that you have in your heart,
it's meaningless, it's vain, all the lusts of your eyes.
You know, there's so much time spent on the lust of the eyes.
For many women, their entire life is dedicated to that one thing, is the lust of the eyes.
Because every part of their life is about what outfit they're going to wear,
if it's matching, all the colors, what kind of makeup, what their hair is going to look like,
just all just the lust of the eye and just living their whole life for that.
But you know what? It's going to pass away.
All that beauty and pretty soon she's just going to be bones.
And you know, I don't know if they say this or not,
but I've never seen someone say like,
that's some good looking bones, you know?
Like pretty much when we all get to bones,
we all kind of look the same.
And it really didn't matter.
Beauty is vain is what the Bible says.
The lust of the flesh, you know,
all the things that we really love and all the desires
and all the parts of this world
that we just get so excited about,
all of it's gonna burn up, all of it's gonna go away,
and no one will ever remember who won pickleball.
No one will ever want know who won hockey. No one will ever know who won any of this stuff
You know, you could be the greatest athlete you could be the greatest chess master
You could be the greatest in any of these things and it's just the lust of the flesh
Doesn't matter what meals you had it doesn't matter what house you had it doesn't matter what nice things
Yeah, you know all that stuff's passing away
And what does the Bible say?
It says, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
What does it say?
Don't love the stuff in this world.
People are just obsessed with the stuff in this world.
They love clothes, and they love houses, and they love cars, and they love all the things
in this world.
They love all the bars and all the drinking and all the vacations and all the destinations and all the spots and all the things
This is like the Bible says love not the world neither things that are in the world
Does that mean you can't enjoy things in this life? No, you know what? That's not where your heart should be
That's not where your love should be
Right we all need these things. There's nothing wrong with having fun
But at the end of the day, that's not our life all that stuff's gonna pass away the things that matter are the things of God
Doing the will of God. Notice, but He that doeth the will of God abideth forever.
You will abide forever.
We need to make sure that we have the right attitude, the right love for these things.
Man, this isn't a very popular message. Exactly.
The godly man seeseth.
Most people care about those few things.
Govwa would back to Matthew 24 and at the end of the day,
you don't know when your day will be called.
You don't know if we're in the end times.
You don't know if you'll just die before the end times anyways.
And so you shouldn't just spend all your time loving the world.
All your effort, all your energy, all your money,
all your time is just dedicated to all those things.
Matthew 24, look at verse 27.
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving and marriage until the day that Noe entered in the ark.
And knew not until the flood came and took them all away.
So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.
Then shall two be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left,
two women shall be grinding at the mill, and the one shall be taken and the other left.
Watch therefore for you know not what hour your Lord doth come."
So again, just hammering this fact that you have no idea.
A couple things to note for a lot of the world, the end times will be business as usual.
For many people, it won't be anything different.
It'll be very normal for them, and business as usual,
and then it's just going to take them by complete surprise.
That's why the Bible is saying, watch.
And it says this in a couple other places.
Go to Mark 13, go to Mark 13.
How can all these things be true Pastor Shelley because in some ways it's saying it's the greatest martyrdom
It's like chaotic and other places. It's just saying there's two people in a mill
Just hanging out and then just one's taking the others left. Well, you have to understand that the world is vast
so
Just because we're doing something here doesn't mean people in another part of the world are doing something different
Just like hey, we're here just having fun people in LA are getting their cars burned down
You know people are just running and making a muck up in the streets in LA and in California
Right now if you go in the Middle East
There's all kinds of turmoil and conflict in the Middle East people in North Korea aren't living like we're living right now
People in Africa aren't doing the things that we're doing so there's different experiences for different people all over the world
That's why even in the end times is a different experience
I can only speculate what the end times will be like.
I have no exact idea. I don't know exactly how it's going to play out.
I don't know exactly what all the pieces are going to look like.
But just my best guess right now, based on what I know and the circumstances,
if this thing happened any time near our lifetime,
I think it's kind of likely that the Antichrist will march through Europe with Islam as its main foe.
Now, I think it's likely he could just wipe out Islam completely.
Some people think that he's just going to wipe out like the leaders of Islam.
I don't know.
But just go with me, basically wipes out Islam through Europe, gets to the Middle East.
By this time, we're about the three and a half year mark of that last seven years.
Well, those of us in America are just going to be every once in a while watching the news, like,
oh, okay, another terrorist cell got killed in France or Germany or wherever, like, who cares?
Old news, you know, who are they trading for, you know, the Cowboys now
or like, what's going on with the Mavs or something?
Or, you know, like, most people are just going to be living their life here just doing whatever.
They could care less about what's happening.
I'm just telling you, that's my opinion
of how it could be going down.
Even though there's war, a lot of people just don't care.
A lot of people are just like, yeah, whatever, there's war.
It's not bothering me.
And in fact, I don't like Islam anyways,
so nuts to Islam, right?
I mean, that's not a lot of America.
It's America.
So they're just living their best life.
They're getting married.
They're sending each other gifts.
They're just having fun.
They're just doing their thing, going to sporting events,
at the three and a half year mark,
the Antichrist is gonna say,
hey, you gotta get a mark, small or great,
and you can't buy ourself.
Well, just like the COVID shot,
people just lined up in CVS,
got the little COVID shot and went on.
So I would assume that could be even similar that,
hey, Antichrist says that, they go down to CVS,
they go out on a Walgreens, get their little mark,
and then they're just back to the sporting event.
They're just back doing their thing, they're just still marrying, having fun, doing whatever
they want because it's just still America, it's still Babylon, it's just still just
doing its thing, whereas other parts of the world are different still.
And there's probably parts of the world because if you think about it like for us, it's likely,
if that's happening though, the Christians, we're being hunted down, there's a lot of
turmoil, there's a lot of chaos, a lot of Christians being round up, maybe a lot of
Christians are even being killed, who knows.
But think about like South America think about the middle of Mexico nowhere think about Africa
It's very likely that in the short amount of time that we've been describing
There's still people just out there in the field
There's people out there in a bed, there's people out there grinding the millstone
So for them it still hasn't really happened and yeah, someone's taken, someone's not
So, you know, if you're in Judea, that's the hot zone
That is like the intense part of what's really going on and then probably the developed world is probably gonna be experiencing the most
You know when it comes to the extremities of what the anti-crisis doing places that are really underdeveloped and there's not a lot going on
They might just be kind of like doing their ooga booga thing. You know what I mean?
There's tribes in the middle of the Amazon or something that don't even have cell phones
I don't know that they're gonna get the mark, you know
Necessarily and I could be wrong. Maybe technology will advance so much that even they have to get it right away or something
I don't know
But I'm just saying, like, it seems likely that there's going to be different experiences of people all over the world at these same time.
And for most people, for the vast majority of people, when Christ comes, it's going to be a surprise.
It's going to take so many people off guard, they're not going to be expecting this at all.
It's going to be a total, total surprise.
But for those of us that are saved and actually understand the end times, understand the Bible,
we're going to have been watching and it's not going to take us by surprise.
Now look at Mark 13, the end of this.
It says in verse 34,
for the son of man is a man taking a far journey
who has left his house and gave authority to his servants
and to every man his work, commanded the poor to watch.
Watch ye therefore, for you know not when the master
of the house cometh at even, or at midnight,
or at the cock crowing, or in the morning,
lest coming suddenly find you sleeping.
And what I say unto you, I say unto all, watch.
So again, this isn't just for Jews, it's for everybody.
And again, specifically saying we need to watch.
It says, watch, watch, watch, Matthew saying, watch, watch,
go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number five.
1 Thessalonians chapter number five,
the Bible is constantly saying that we need to watch.
What is the word watch often used in the Bible to mean?
Well, today we have some technology that helps us.
We have like,
Ring cameras, and CCTV.
We have different things that kind of protect
security systems that protect our houses.
But, and we live in America where there's not much danger.
for the most part especially in Texas is pretty safe area generally speaking but in other parts of the world other times
There's a lot more danger people would take a watch in the night and what that means is they don't sleep
They basically take and it's like four watches. It's like a three-hour period of time
Broken up for the 12 hours of the evening
So from sundown to the first three hours is like the first watch
So maybe that's like six to nine then the nine to twelve is the second watch twelve to three is the third there's the third watch
from three to six is the fourth watch.
And people will take turns taking those watch times
so that a thief doesn't come through, break and steal,
or do harm or do problem.
So it's staying awake, not sleeping.
That's the implication.
So when the Bible is using this language,
that's what it's describing,
the carnal understanding of watching and sleeping.
But it's used symbolically of Christians not, quote,
sleeping, meaning that they're paying attention to the things of God.
And what would sleeping look like?
Well, sleeping would just basically be just living a carnal, worldly life.
You know, at first Timothy chapter 5 talks about a widow living in pleasure.
She's dead while she's living.
That would be another context of the sleeping where she's just not doing anything,
not paying attention, not reading her Bible, not going to church,
not doing anything to the Lord, just quote, sleeping.
Whereas those of us that are quote, watching, what does that look like?
You're going to church, you're reading a Bible, you're going soul winning,
paying attention to what's actually going on in this world.
And the Bible commands us of this.
1 Thessalonians 5-1
But at the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for
yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord shall comeeth as a thief in the night.
For when they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comeeth upon them,
as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that the day should overtake you as a thief.
We are not of the night, nor of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as do others,
but let us watch and be sober.
For they that sleep, sleep in the night,
and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us, who are of the day, be sober,
putting on the breastplate of faith and love
and foreign helmet, hope of salvation.
For God and the...
appointed us under wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And it goes on and on, but here's the thing the text is saying like
in verse 6, let us not sleep, but what? Let us watch
and be sober. And we as Christians need to
be paying attention and we need to be sober, which means what? We're taking
our lives serious. What if Esther was asleep?
Well, if she wasn't taking her life serious,
then she wouldn't have come and asked the petition,
and she could have been caught unawares
when the Jews were gonna be destroyed.
So it was important for her to be serious about her life,
serious about the situation she's been given,
and taking her opportunity seriously
for such a time as this.
And you know what, we live in unique times in this world,
and we need to take our lives seriously as well.
We'll be back to Matthew 24.
You know, I think we can take out an issue from this
because
It's very likely that this will not happen in our lifetime.
We may not be that generation that the end times is going to come upon.
I don't know, we maybe we are.
But what we can do is this, you know, we can have the same attitude as them and say
we need to take our lives seriously and we need to be constantly watching.
And throughout history, there's been many generations that would have thought
that they were in the end times or that it was very likely.
You know, one in particular would be the French Revolution.
Now, what's crazy about the French Revolution is how many different things in the Bible
that we read about the end times happen because they have all this turmoil, they overthrow
the government, they bring in new leaders, they start literally the beheading.
That's when you really have the guillotine coming in and tons of people are getting
beheaded.
They changed the times and the seasons.
In fact, they went to year one.
the French Revolution, they got rid of our calendar.
It was like literally year one,
and they brought in the metric system.
The metric system didn't even exist
until the French Revolution, basically.
They're the ones that brought this into existence,
the metric system.
Thanks, French, you know, okay.
We're like basically the only ones not doing this.
It's like two other small, tiny countries
that Myanmar and like some other place,
we're the imperial system, right?
But it's like the French Revolution changes the into the metric system. It changes the year. It's like year one
They're starting to behead people. There's all this war and turmoil. Yeah, I could see how if you lived
Then you might think like wow, we're in the end times
World War two with Adolf Hitler and with all the crazy things that are happening
And you see the atomic bomb being dropped and you see all this crazy stuff
I mean it could have been easy to think like we might be in the end times
This is some crazy stuff that's happening in the world and is Hitler the Antichrist?
It could have been pointed that way it looked like a lot of dangerous crazy things were happening a lot of people were dying
So I say that to say this there could be another conflict in the future where we're like this is it and it may not be it
So we want to make sure that we are ready,
but that we're not going to jump the gun either.
Hey, if there starts to break out war and stuff,
I'm not going to just sell everything and like,
go get a sign and hold it out on the street corner
saying the end is near or something, okay?
Or I'm not going to go wait in a field to get raptured.
There's like, there's been groups throughout history
that have sold everything and gone into a field
to wait for the rapture.
They're still waiting, all right?
Not a good move.
This is what I say, I plan to live a thousand years
and I'm ready to die today.
Right, that's the kind of attitude we should try to have.
Hey, I want to live as long as I can
and I want to plan for that,
but at the same time I should be ready to die.
We should be constantly be watching and waiting
and paying attention to what's going on.
And this is what it's being brought up here.
It says in verse 43,
but know this, that if the good men of the house had known
in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched
and would have not suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore, be also ready for in such an hour
as he think not the Son of Man cometh.
Now, let's just be honest with you,
verse 44 has always been puzzling to me.
I don't even know how to interpret it exactly,
but except for...
I'm just saying I don't know how to interpret it
from my speculation of the end times.
This is what I do not interpret that he's gonna come in a time when you think not
You may we may not it may kind of surprise us even a little bit
We may be caught off guard a little bit and so we need to be careful that we're not
Anticipating some future event to happen and then we're not ready for the end times if it actually came like this is what I was
Try to say like we have this
Mindset of well, this is how I think the end times gonna happen and it happened differently
So then you're somehow caught off guard or something like that
You know, we should be always willing to change our speculations about the future.
And we should always just be ready and trying to pay as much attention
because he's saying, hey, when you're not thinking this is going to happen, it's going to happen.
Verse 45,
Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made rule over his household to give them meat and do season?
Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing.
Verily I say unto you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
But, and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord, delayeth his coming.
and shall begin to smite his fellow servants
and to eat and drink with the drunken.
The Lord of that servant shall come in a day
when he looketh not for him,
and in an hour that he is 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 again, some of this can be applied to 70 AD a little bit.
Obviously this is kind of a shadow fulfillment.
And, you know, you could look at these evil servants and one application is being kind of just Jews in general.
And how the Jews really persecuted their brethren,
persecuted a lot of the Christians and the Sade in this time.
And of course, they didn't recognize their appointed judgment when 70 AD came upon them.
But I think this also can be applied to the future.
And one group of people that kind of stands out in my mind that this could really apply to is Catholics
because I think it's very likely that the Antichrist could be using the Pope as his false prophet.
And that, you know, it could be someone like Elon Musk,
that's just kind of a technocrat, I don't know,
could be someone like the Pope, who has a lot of respect
and has a lot of people behind him.
I mean, kind of like a billion Catholics
following this guy.
And so, if you think about it,
Catholics are kind of Christian,
depending on how you use that label.
And I know,
People get offended by these words all the time.
It's like, I said Catholics aren't Christian
and these Catholics are all freaking out.
And they're just like, how are we not Christian or whatever?
And then some Catholics will be like, no, I'm not Christian.
So, you know, it just depends on which Catholic you ask.
But, you know, in my opinion,
Catholics aren't real Christians,
but just for the sake of statistics,
often they're lumped together with all of us
and we're all just, quote, Christian, right?
And we're almost, quote, fellow servants in a sense.
But here's the thing, a lot of Catholics are gonna be
You know, attacking and persecuting God's people in the end times.
They're going to be the ones smiting their fellow servants.
And it's pretty easy to think Catholics when you see the word drunken.
Let me tell you something, Catholics are drunkards.
And they love to drink.
And let me tell you something, they're not sober.
And the Bible says this for us to be sober.
You know, oh, how dare you, Baptist, lecture us on drinking.
You know, drinkings of God.
No, you're a drunk.
No, you should not drink, you should be sober, and in fact, even in America, drinking alcohol
was outlawed at one point.
It was the temperance movement.
The whole country basically was on board with the idea that drinking alcohol was wrong
and bad, but they just realized man is too bad to police them, so basically it was a
nightmare.
The Temperance Movement brought in all kinds of mafia and bootlegging and underground bars and casinos and all kinds of crazy stuff.
And these mafia groups had all this money and they were just terrorizing the cities.
And so just policing alcohol just became untenable. It just became just unreasonable.
So then it's just like, fine, let's just legalize it.
What was the point of legalizing it?
from all these mafia bosses and all these criminal organizations because
they were capitalizing on the fact that booze was outlawed.
But by legalizing it and kind of distributing it more equally then
the money spreads out and it kind of weakens the power that a lot of these
crime syndicates had. Because the the reality is most people just still wanted
to drink and a lot of people were drinking and it was just
Argue whether or not you think drinking should be legal or not, but obviously when you outlaw it then you get these criminal
Organizations that arise because of how bad humanity is when you legalize it then you get drunkards everywhere and dy's and all kinds of stuff
So pick your poison. Let me tell you something. Nothing ever good comes from alcohol
And the Bible is saying, hey, we should be sober, but how many Christians today are just
drinking their lives away and getting drunk all the time and not being sober and not paying
attention and not watching and not being filled with the Holy Spirit, they're being filled
with a familiar spirit, with another spirit, with Jack Daniels.
You go down to the liquor store and they'll literally even say spirits on it, and that's
not the spirit that God wants you to be filled with.
And there's going to be a lot of people that just spend their whole life just eating and getting drunk
and just living their life and they never even got saved.
And isn't that sad?
I mean, it's really sad how there's just going to be a billion Catholics that'll die and go to hell.
It's really sad.
There's all these Presbyterians.
There's all these drunk Calvinists and Lordship Salvationists.
And you look at a lot of the non-the non-people today, they love to just drink and they want
to be of the world and they love the world so much that they didn't think about actually
getting wise and getting saved.
And even of the people that are saved,
many saved people are going to just kind of be sleeping.
They're not going to be paying attention.
They're going to be hungover and passed out and blacked out drunk.
And instead of actually doing something for God,
they just waste their life.
And you know what?
It's just sad to me how so many people drink.
I mean, I don't even know what the statistics are.
Someone can look them up if you want to,
but it just feels like 90, 95% of people drink alcohol
when you talk about adults in America.
It seems like no matter what place I go to work at
or what place of business or what group of adults I'm around,
they're just always drinking.
You go to the restaurant, it seems like most people are drinking.
You go to a sporting event, most people are drinking.
You go to a family event and a lot of people want to drink.
That's why we have to even stay away from family events
a lot of times because we just want to stay away from the drinking.
and it's hard to find sober people that take their life seriously today.
You know what?
We should take our life seriously.
Go to Titus chapter 2.
You know, some people that are unseed would twist this passage into saying like,
oh, so you can lose your salvation if you're a hypocrite or something.
Well, notice it said that they're going to point their portion with the hypocrites.
What is a hypocrite?
A hypocrite is one that says and does not.
This evil servant group isn't those people.
because they're not even saying.
They're just in the world partying and drinking and doing whatever and smiting their fellow servants.
Then you have the hypocrites.
Hypocrites are like the Pharisees.
They're the people that are in church that are giving lip service to the things of God,
but then they actually don't do anything.
They're actually kind of fake and they're not sincere.
Then you've got the group of people that are just, they're not even saying they're going to do it.
They're just out there partying and living it up and living a life of lasciviousness
and they're going to get their same portion with the hypocrites.
And, you know, you'd be better off, I can see, if I was that person, I wouldn't want to be the hypocrite.
I'd rather be the person just going out there and doing it, because it's least more sincere, right?
They're more real.
But at the end of the day, they're both going to the same place, they're both going to hell.
And the Bible tells us, and it commands us, to be sober.
Over and over, people say like, oh, where in the Bible does it say not to drink alcohol?
Well, it says to be sober, right?
I mean, does the Bible always have to say the antithesis?
Like, where in the Bible does it say to be faithful to your wife?
Well, it says not to commit adultery.
Right?
I mean, does it have to say don't get drunk when it says be sober?
I think be sober is fine.
Because it's like commanding you to not be drinking.
And in Titus chapter 2, look at verse 2, it says that the ages men be sober.
Old men need to be sober.
Look at verse 3, the aged women likewise, and then skip down to verse 4, that they may teach the young women to be sober.
So there you got the old men, then you got the older ladies, then you got the older ladies teaching the younger ladies,
both of them need to be sober, and then verse 6, young men likewise, exhort to be sober minded.
There's the Bible, it's just old men sober, young men sober, older ladies sober, younger ladies sober.
Everybody needs to be sober, period.
That is what the Bible teaches and the Bible commands and you know what in our church
We do have a high standard for this and we don't allow junkers to be a part of our church
And I love that is that gonna help build the church?
No, it'll probably have less people come to the church, but you know what we'll be sober at least and
You know nothing good ever comes of alcohol anyways go to 1st Peter 4 and we'll finish 1st Peter chapter 4
You know
Drinking alcohol is just, it's like playing risk with your life.
And yeah, it's like rushing your letter or something.
Yeah, maybe a lot of times it's going to be a blank, but you never know when your number is going to be called.
And when it comes to drinking, especially if someone's drinking and driving,
it only takes one bad decision, it only takes one moment to just run your entire life.
And I think that's why God's so long-suffering because the consequences of drinking are so extreme
that he's often hoping that you'll escape that before you actually cause some permanent damage.
And you know, we all make mistakes, we all cause problems, we all do things,
and I think a lot of times God's long-suffering with us and God gives us grace
so that we don't end up crossing some permanent boundary or really altering our lives permanently.
But let me tell you something, alcohol can cause you some real permanent damage.
You can kill someone, you could have an infidelity, some indiscretion,
you could hurt someone that you love, you could hurt yourself.
Just horrible things are constantly happening from alcohol
and you should not be drinking alcohol.
As a Christian, we need to be sober, we need to be watching, pay attention.
Hey, go to church and learn Matthew 24.
No one was harmed in the hearing of Matthew 24.
But a lot of people will be harmed tonight because of alcohol.
And if you drank alcohol in the past, just quit now.
Never do it again.
Just don't drink again.
What does the Bible say in verse 1?
For as much as his Christ has suffered for us in the flesh,
arm yourselves likewise with the same mind,
for he did have suffered in the flesh that seized from sin,
that he should no longer live the rest of his time
in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles
when we walk in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine,
revelings, banquettings, and abominable idolatries.
And they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you
So look when you don't drink when you don't party when you don't go to the bar when you don't like happy hour
It's not happy hour. It's stupid hour
It's expensive hour like life is already so expensive just not drinking will just save you thousands
Let just just on the cost of alcohol alone
Let alone all the medical bills. Let alone all the DUI tickets. Let alone all the other things
You're gonna cause yourself all the other problems and relationship dramas
You're gonna cause as a result of drinking alcohol, but just the sheer cost of alcohol alone
It'll save you thousands of dollars
Not only that, it'll just save you pretty much every organ of your body because alcohol
destroys every organ of your body.
It destroys your kidneys and your liver and your stomach and your brain and your heart
and your skin and it'll make you have a really big nose.
It'll give you that fat pop belly that you don't want and you just look like a pregnant
lady.
That's gross. It'll feminize you most of beers today have a lot of feminizing effects. They have so much calories
It'll make you fat overweight give you all kinds of just health issues and problems
It'll make you stupid. You'll lose good ideas. You'll run relationships
You smell like piss whenever you drink alcohol
It runs your life. It runs your wallet. It runs your brain. There's nothing good about it. It's just it's crazy
to think that the devil has tricked so much of our society into drinking poison today.
Because it's literally poison.
And it's saying, hey, if you did it in the past, just let that be enough.
If you drank in college, let it be enough.
If you did something stupid in the past, let it be enough.
Now spend the rest of your time living for God.
Sober up and now watch.
Pay attention to the things of God.
says in verse number seven,
but the end of all things is at hand.
Be therefore sober and watch unto prayer.
And above all things,
have fervent charity among yourselves,
or charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
So the Bible is telling us,
hey, we need to be sober, we need to be watching.
And look, I'm not saying these things because I hate people or I hate people that drink.
I hate what happens to you when you drink and I hate what you do to other people when
you drink.
And you know, if you want to quit drinking, we'll love you and embrace you and we'll
be your friend.
You know, we should have fervent charity.
We should always be willing to restore the repentant.
We should always be willing to welcome those who have lived hard lives and rough lives and want them to come back into the fold.
You know what? Having fervent charity is not saying we're gonna love you in your drunkenness. No, sober up, buddy.
We're not going to love you in your sin.
We're not going to tolerate your sin.
We're not going to suffer that sin upon you.
We're going to call you out and say, hey, quit drinking,
quit being a drunkard, quit being an alcoholic.
Put away the booze, and hey, we'll receive you.
We'll be kind to you.
But it ruins so many things.
And it's personal for me because there's relationships
that I can't even have because of alcohol.
And there's people in my life that I
wish I could have a close relationship,
but alcohol is separating us from having that relationship.
And it's just, it's just so sad to see people choosing alcohol over a relationship with
someone that they supposedly care about.
They supposedly love.
No, they just love the bottle.
And you know, the people that I know that are like this, they drink alcohol when they
were very young, 14, 15, 16.
The statistics are astronomical and their chances of being a lifelong alcoholic
are drinking a lot in their older life.
And those who drink like over the age of 21,
most people that drink for the first time after the age of 21
end up never really being an alcoholic or getting addicted to it.
It's almost always people that had it when they were 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
And let me tell you something, kids are too stupid to make the right decision.
Please please just keep it away from your kids and keep your kids away from those friends and keep your kids away from those
Activities and don't have it in the house. Don't have it around them
Don't go to uncle so-and-so's house and allow them to spend the summer vacation with them and
Uncle so-and-so give them the beer or whatever and uncle so-and-so run their life
Hey, there's a lot of uncles out there that have ruined a lot of their nieces and nephews lives
Be careful about uncle so-and-so be careful about extended family and be careful about what friends they have and be careful about
You know yourself even and just keep it away from them
Just keep away this stuff because you know it'll ruin their life
It can destroy them it can cause them all kinds of problems and you just want them to just not do that kids
They're drinking at 18 19 20, you know, you can't necessarily always force your kids to do the right thing, but
You know you could try to
keep them away from it long enough
to where they won't go down that path.
And sometimes they're not smart enough
to make the right decisions for themselves.
And you know, we need to be careful about the decisions we make
because there's a special generation
that's gonna be chosen for the end times.
There's gonna be a special book that's used.
And you know, our time here is special.
We wanna raise a generation that's gonna be sober,
that's gonna take the things of God seriously.
You know, a lot of us have kind of come into Christianity later in life or taken things
of God seriously later in life, but we're raising kids to have this is that they've
only known this.
Let's do something with that, right?
Let's try to help them to continue down that path and let's not give up.
in the latter parts of their life.
Hey, those teenage years are still super important.
Let's continue to pour into them and invest in them
and try to protect them from the evils of this world.
You know, I still think they're very impressionable
at teenagers and even young adults
and we need to still minister to them
and love on them and encourage them.
You know, we're having a teen activity
because we want to have them to be encouraged.
And you know, as a young teenager,
your life's very important.
You're very special.
This is a special time in this world.
Take your life seriously.
Even if you're not going to be there in times,
just still take your life very seriously
because God can do great things through you
if you would just take it seriously.
But help, Lord, for the godly man, Ciceth.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this sobering chapter
and these sobering words.
Thank you for preserving your word for us.
We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
We don't know what's going to happen in the future,
but I pray that we would be watching
and we would be paying attention
and that we'd be sober
and that we'd take our life seriously.
I pray that you would help us
to not love the things of this world,
but we'd love the Bible,
we'd love the things of God,
we'd love the lost,
that we care about soul winning.
Thank you for allowing us to do great works
at the beginning of this year.
I pray that you would help us to finish this year strong.
I pray that you would help us to love our children and to continue to minister to them
and prepare them for the future.
I pray that you would help us to keep them away from all the evils of this world.
And I pray that you would help our church to continue to be sober in Jesus' name we pray.
Okay, in closing, let's go to song number 419.
Sound the battle cry.
Song number 419, let's all sing it out together.
Sound the battle cry.
Sing a pose and raise high.
Stand your life for the Lord.
Turn your honor on.
Stand firm everyone.
A thousand soldiers rally round the banner.
Ready, steady, ask the word of law.
Onward, forward, shout the loud rosanna.
Christ is captain of the mighty law.
Strong, too.