I've been writing messages on this website and in Facebook for already nine months now. But I have 45 subscribers and very few readers only. You can count them by the fingers of your hands. Even so, I expect both believers and non-believers to respond. This situation gives me three kinds of feelings.
- Sadness. I'm so sad for failing to reach out many people, according to my earnest desire to spread the saving gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- Pity. It's a loss of chance for expected readers to know God and to obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8) according to the Scripture for the salvation of their souls.
- Excitement. The turnout of this evangelistic effort and the current situation of the whole world prove crystal clear that the signs of times are being fulfilled today and the second coming of the Jesus Christ is fast approaching, ready to meet his saints in the air.
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2 He answered and said to them, When it is evening, you say, Fair weather; for the sky is red.
3 And in the morning, Foul weather today; for the sky is red and gloomy. Hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot see the signs of the times!
It is the evil and sinful people who want to see a miracle as a sign from God. But no miracle will be done to prove anything to them. They find it easy enough to forecast the weather but they can’t you read the signs of the times. God does not give the exact days and hour of the coming of the Son of Man, not even to the angels of Heaven (Matthew 24:36-43; Luke 12:39-40 ), but the signs of the times to watch (Matthew 16:13). The day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5:2; 2 Peter 3:10). Therefore, believe not on those who say that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming on a specific date but believe on the Word of God that shows us the signs of the times.
2 Peter 3:3-4
3 First, knowing this, that there will come in the last days scoffers walking according to their own lusts
4 and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
Scoffers are the same as mockers in Jude 1:18. The word means those who deride, reproach, ridicule. They treat the prophesies relating to the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the end of the world with derision or contempt. They ridicule the doctrines that the Lord Jesus would return, that there would be a day of judgment, that the world would be consumed by fire, etc.
Description of Scoffers (2 Peter 2:10-19, CEV)
- They disobey God.
- They don't think of anything except their own filthy desires.
- They are reckless and proud.
- They are not afraid of cursing the glorious beings in heaven.
- They are no better than senseless animals that live by their feelings and are born to be caught and killed.
- They speak evil of things they don't know anything about.
- They think it is fun to have wild parties during the day.
- They are immoral, and the meals they eat with you are spoiled by the shameful and selfish way they carry on.
- They Think about is having sex with someone else's husband or wife.
- There is no end to their wicked deeds.
- They trick people who are easily fooled.
- Their minds are filled with greedy thoughts.
- They have left the true road and have gone down the wrong path.
- These people are like dried up water holes and clouds blown by a windstorm.
- They brag out loud about their stupid nonsense.
- And by being vulgar and crude, they trap people who have barely escaped from living the wrong kind of life.
- They promise freedom to everyone. But they are merely slaves of filthy living, because people are slaves of whatever controls them.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3 For a time will be when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap up teachers to themselves according to their own lusts, tickling the ear.
4 And they will turn away their ears from the truth and will be turned to myths.
This is the time in the Church when men do not hear the practical truths of the Gospel of salvation. They have endless curiosity. They don't like listening to sound doctrine from a good and faithful preacher. They prefer fair speakers. They seek a kind of instruction more conformable to their wishes and feelings, such that quoting the Word of God makes them feel holy instead of living the Word.
Without the Word of God hidden in their hearts, they sin more against God (Psalm 119:11). They call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! They become wise in their own eyes, and bright in their own sight! (Isaiah 5:20-21).
So come on, let’s leave the preschool finger-painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and turning in trust toward God; baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. God helping us, we’ll stay true to all that. But there’s so much more. Let’s get on with it! (Hebrews 6:1-3, MSG).
2 Peter 2:1-2
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who secretly will bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their pernicious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be evil spoken of.
1 Timothy 4:1-3
1 But the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons,
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, being seared in their own conscience,
3 forbidding to marry, saying to abstain from foods which God has created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
1 Know this also, that in the last days grievous times will be at hand.
2 For men will be self-lovers, money-lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 without natural affection, unyielding, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good,
4 traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it.
James 5:1-5
1 Come now, rich ones, weep and howl for your hardships coming on.
2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten.
2 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their poison will be a witness against you, and will eat your flesh as fire. You heaped treasure in the last days.
4 Behold, the hire of the laborers reaping your fields cry out, being kept back by you. And the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth, and lived wantonly. You have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
Revelation 3:14-22
14 And to the angel of the church of the Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Head of the creation of God, says these things:
15 I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot.
16 So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
17 Because you say, I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing, and do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,
18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold purified by fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be clothed, and so that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. And anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you may see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; therefore be zealous and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.
21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame and have sat down with My Father in His throne.
22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Matthew 24:32
Mat 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When its branch is still tender and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near.
Mat 24:33 So you, likewise, when you see all these things, shall know that it is near, at the doors.
Luke 21:28
28 And when these things begin to happen, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near.
Take a similitude, or comparison from the fig tree, which was a tree well known in Judea; and the putting forth of its branches, leaves, and fruit, fell under the observation of everyone. When the juices return from the roots into the branches, and the buds swell and burst, “as if tender,” and too feeble to contain the pressing and expanding leaves when you see that, you judge that spring and summer are near. Concerning Christ's second coming, it is foretold that there shall be a great change.
Luke 25:21-26
25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. And on the earth will be anxiety of nations with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;
26 men fainting from fear, and expecting those things which have come on the earth. For the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.
Luke 17:26-27
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it also shall be in the days of the Son of Man.
27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Matthew 25:1-13
1 Then shall the kingdom of Heaven be likened to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 The foolish ones took their lamps, but took no oil with them.
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom comes! Go out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps have gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there be not enough for us and you. But rather go to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came. And they who were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut.
11 Afterwards the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Truly I say to you, I do not know you.
13 Therefore watch, for you do not know either the day or the hour in which the Son of Man comes.
These virgins, doubtless, represent the church - a name given to it because it is pure and holy (2 Corinthians 11:2; Lamentation 1:15; 2:13).
The gospel is light, and they who receive it must not only be enlightened by it themselves, but must shine as lights, must hold it forth (Philippians 2:15, 16).
Oil is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, and "If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his" (Romans 8:9).
Matthew 13:24-30
24 He put out another parable to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel among the wheat and went his way.
26 But when the blade had sprung up and had produced fruit, then the darnel also appeared.
27 So the servants of the householder came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then where have the darnel come from?
28 He said to them, An enemy has done this. The servants said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them up?
29 But he said, No, lest while you gather up the darnel you also root up the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest. And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather together the darnel and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my granary.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
13 But I would not have you ignorant, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, that you be not grieved, even as others who have no hope.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him all those who have fallen asleep through Jesus.
15 For we say this to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not go before those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall ever be with the Lord.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4
3 Let not anyone deceive you by any means. For that Day shall not come unless there first comes a falling away, and the man of sin shall be revealed, the son of perdition,
4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself forth, that he is God.
Acts 1:11-12
11 This same Jesus who is taken up from you into Heaven, will come in the way you have seen Him going into Heaven.
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount Of Olive Grove, which is a sabbath day's journey from Jerusalem.
Zechariah 14:4
4 And His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall divide from its middle, from the east and to the west, a very great valley. And half of the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
Luke 21:27
27 And then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Haggai 2:6-7
6 For so says Jehovah of Hosts: Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.
7 And I will shake all the nations; and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill this house with glory, says Jehovah of Hosts.
Matthew 25:31-46
31 But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He shall sit on the throne of His glory.
32 And all nations shall be gathered before Him. And He shall separate them from one another, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats.
33 And indeed He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats off the left.
34 Then the King shall say to those on His right hand, Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
35 For I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in;
36 I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.
37 Then the righteous shall answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, and fed You? Or thirsty, and gave You drink?
38 When did we see You a stranger, and took You in? Or naked, and clothed You?
39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and came to You?
40 And the King shall answer and say to them, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done it to Me.
41 Then He also shall say to those on the left hand, Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.
42 For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink;
43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; I was naked, and you did not clothe Me; I was sick, and in prison, and you did not visit me.
44 Then they will also answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to You?
45 Then He shall answer them, saying, Truly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.
46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into everlasting life.