I'd like to go to Matthew 24 and
just review with you for a moment.
I teach out of this chapter probably more
than any one slot.
You'll never wear this out.
We could come here for 21 nights and
I'd say, take your Bible, turn to Matthew
24, and when the 21 nights were up,
we would not have scraped the surface.
That's the good part about the book.
You're not going to exhaust the Word of
God.
Matthew 24, we have Jesus encountering the disciples.
And it's important for you to note, if
you have a red-letter edition of the
Word of God, notice what the Bible says
here in verse number 1.
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 ye not
all these things?
Verily I say unto you, There shall not
be left here one stone upon another that
shall not be thrown down.
Verse 3.
Now, as He sat upon the Mount of
Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately.
Verses 1 and 2 was a public encounter.
Verses 1 and 2, a lot of people
were around.
A lot of people were asking questions.
And Jesus spoke.
If you have a red-letter Bible, He's
speaking in verse 2.
3, now we go back to a private
meeting.
Jesus and these preachers.
And here comes the private meeting.
And as He sat upon the Mount of
Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately saying,
Tell us, when shall these things be?
And what shall be the sign of thy
coming and of the end of the world?
They asked for three things in that question.
They said, Jesus, please tell us, when shall
these things be?
And what shall be the sign of thy
coming?
And what shall be the sign of the
end of the world?
Now, human nature has not changed in 2
,000 years.
Every person under this tent wants to ask
those same three questions.
If we could get Jesus on a cell
phone and we'd say, Jesus, tell me, what
shall be the sign?
When shall these things be?
How will I know the end is near?
Everyone would want to know that.
And many times people have attempted to determine
that by studying the Scriptures.
There's several phases of studies when you're assimilating
the Word of God.
One thing that you study in the Bible
is you study the text in context.
You study the Bible.
The greatest commentary on the Word of God
is the Word of God.
So, then you must understand, secondly, the Bibles
have no private interpretation.
Thirdly, you've got to understand what I mentioned
to you the other night.
For everything that God has real, the devil
has a mirror or a counterfeit.
You have God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost.
You have the devil, the beast, and the
false prophet.
The devil is anti-God.
The beast is anti-Christ.
And the false prophet is anti-Holy Ghost.
You've got to understand that.
You'll never understand this world that you're in
if you don't understand there really is a
true church.
And there really is a false church.
But Revelation calls it a harlot church.
I didn't use that word.
God said that.
God said there's a real church.
Now, many times I'm in preacher's meetings, or
I'm preaching at a Christian college campus, or
I'm addressing seminarians or theologians, and they love
questions and answers.
You know, they like to ask you things
that trip you up.
And, you know, if God is so great
and powerful, can God create a rock that
God cannot lift?
And I always say, if He wants to,
He's got Him to do anything He wants
to do.
You won't have a lot of questions if
you just learn to love God and trust
Him and His precious Word.
But one of the things that they are
always asking me that I get a repeated
question is, well, if you believe in the
imminent return of Jesus Christ, that means Jesus
could come at any moment.
And I believe that.
That's why I wake up excited.
That's why I go to bed excited.
Because I'm always getting out of bed, and
I'm dragging these bones into the shower and
say, something moved now, let's go.
And nothing wants to work, everything, you know,
and I'm saying, let's go.
This could be our last day.
And we want to look sharp.
We want to be sharp.
We don't want to hustle.
We don't want God to show up.
Must be sucking her thumb sound asleep or
looking lazy.
Huh?
If I give you some advice, I'd tell
you to get busy.
Jesus is coming.
If you don't have something to do, act
like it.
Okay?
I mean, you need to be busy.
Jesus is coming.
And they say, if Jesus is coming and
you believe in his imminent return, then how
can you explain why you still preach on
revival?
Because the Bible says quite clearly that before
Jesus comes, there will be an apostasy.
There will be a falling away.
Is that not a conflict?
Is that not the Bible rebuking itself?
Are you not confused in your interpretation of
the Word of God?
If you're preaching revival still and you believe
Jesus can come, and the Bible says clearly
that there'll be an apostasy and there'll be
a falling away.
You know why they ask that question?
They don't understand.
Everything real, everything counterfeit.
God's got a look-alike.
God's got a real church.
God's got a false church.
And that false church is the form of
godliness that denies what?
The power thereof.
Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, read that
book.
Not everyone says, Lord, Lord's going to go
into the kingdom of heaven.
Right?
Why would anyone die?
You follow this thought with me.
Why would any person on planet earth die
and go to the judgment seat, the great
white throne or the judgment seat of Christ?
But this particular text is talking about the
great white throne judgment.
Why would anyone die and go meet God?
Now, here I am.
I'm dead.
I come to.
There's God on His throne.
And Tim, he's going to look me over.
He knows what's real, what's not real.
I'm not going to fool him.
He knows church membership isn't going to save
me.
Water baptisms, sprinklings not going to save me.
Catechisms and candles not going to save me.
Priest rabbis and preachers aren't going to save
me.
Hey, my name better be in that book
when the big angel opens.
Right?
Okay?
Now, I'm going to walk up to him.
Lord, Lord, have we not done many mighty
things in thy name?
And he says, depart.
I never knew you.
How in the name of heaven could anyone
die and go face God and put on
an act and say, Lord, Lord?
You know what I think?
I don't think they're acting.
Jay, I think they died deceived.
I think they thought they were right.
I think they were ensnared by false religions
and false gods and false cults.
And they were doing their religious aerobics.
And they thought that was salvation.
And they walked up to God this big
as brass and said, Lord, Lord.
Now, you say, well, Brother Ralph, that's scary.
It's so scary.
God put in the Bible, make your election
and calling sure.
He said, don't you depend on what your
grandmother said you said when you were nine
years old.
Don't you depend on what your Sunday school
teacher said you said when you were six
years old.
Don't you depend on what somebody said you
got baptized or sprinkled or you joined the
church when you were 12.
He said, when you're an adult and you
can think as an adult, you know right
from wrong.
He said, you make sure you know that
you've got a personal relationship with the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Wouldn't it be embarrassing to walk in and
say, Lord, Lord, and he'd say the part
I never knew?
That would be embarrassing.
But embarrassment's nothing to the reality of hell.
Some of you asked if I would get
that entire message, and I didn't bring it
all to tent.
But they have eight or nine copies over
there where I deal with every issue in
the hell, every attribute of hell, the reality
of hell.
And when you think about hell and its
reality and what it means, the darkness, the
bottomless pit, the suffering, the demons, the violence,
the wickedness, all the things that we illuminate
as we go down through that study.
Then I'm going to tell you something.
There's one thing you know.
You do not want to go to hell.
No person in their right mind.
So why would I walk up to God
and say, Lord, Lord?
That proves there's going to be people deceived
in the last days.
And that's scary because I can be deceived
and you can be deceived.
So what did God do?
Now, pastors, you listen to me right here.
If you're a pastor in a local church,
here's where your fire ought to be in
your bones.
Right here.
God said, if you believe all this stuff
and you see that day approaching, He said
to the church, forsake not the assembling of
yourselves together.
He didn't say have less church.
He said have more church.
He said, if you believe that all this
is in the book and you believe that
I'm going to, my son's going to come
at any moment.
He said, then you go to church more,
not less.
Why?
Because if it wasn't for the grace of
God, the very elect would be deceived.
That means the very people that are saved.
So God says spiritual warfare is going to
increase.
And the closer we get to the coming
of the Lord, more and more people are
going to be deceived.
So therefore, I need to study my Bible
more.
I need to pray more.
And I need to go to church more.
Just because I've done good all these years,
it doesn't mean I'm going to finish good.
Because I've not met what is in the
road in front of me.
No one has ever encountered what we're getting
ready to encounter.
As a nation and as a world.
As the Holy Spirit of God begins that
slow removal, restraining power.
And we begin to see the effects of
men and women without God.
As they're turned loose as human predators.
And are we not already experiencing some of
that?
Are we not already experiencing that?
The predatory walk of men and women that
are literally consuming the children of our own
society?
Huh?
I mean, you know what the FBI tell
us, the statisticians?
They say that when they arrest a child
molester, a sexual predator, that it's usually his
30th or 31st episode with a child before
he's ever caught.
The normal is that it's not his first
or second time that he's done this or
she's done this 25, 30 times before they're
ever arrested.
So if we're seeing something on the news,
then you think how much is out there
25 times or 30 times?
We don't even know about.
Mom and dad, grandmother and grandfather.
It ought to drive us to our knees
to pray for our children, our grandchildren.
Now, if I look at this passage, verse
3, as he said upon the Mount of
Olives, the disciples said and came unto him
proudly saying, Tell us all these things we've
been talking about.
How do we know it's near?
How do we know it's close?
How can we tell?
And if we go through here, let me
just go ahead and read this so that
when I get to telling you about it,
I don't have to back up.
Jesus answered him in verse 4 and said
unto them, Take heed that no man what?
Is that not what I was just talking
about?
God said people are going to be deceived.
So out of the mouth of Jesus Christ,
not a Baptist, Presbyterian or Methodist, not Ralph
Sexton, not your pastor, your Sunday school teacher.
Jesus said, you take heed.
Now you listen to me.
This may be the last night, but don't
let the devil distract what you take in
the night.
You understand.
Deception is coming and you need to know
that you need to have a close relationship
with God.
Don't be deceived.
Why?
Verse 5, For many shall come in my
name, saying, I am Christ, and shall what?
Deceive many.
There it is again.
Do you remember Waco, Texas?
Do you remember David Koresh?
Do you remember that story?
Did you know after he was killed there
in that house, did you know that the
Houston, Texas paper wondered if there was anyone
else claiming to be Christ?
Was there any other person claiming to be
Jesus?
And they did a survey.
They found 50 different men and women claiming
to be Christ in just Texas alone.
You say, well nobody.
It's happening all around the world.
And people are following for that.
No one would believe what he said.
How could he tell them I'm Christ incarnate?
Why didn't just somebody in Waco just say,
hey, before I die with you, can I
see the nail prints in your hand?
Do you mind opening your shirt there and
let me see your side?
Right?
You see, you know why people are deceived?
Because they don't have the Word of God.
They don't have Bible doctrine to protect them
and to keep them.
And you've got to have that on the
inside.
That's why the devil tries to keep you
out of church Sunday night.
That's why the devil tries to keep you
out of church during special revival meeting.
That's why he tries to keep you out
of church on Wednesday night.
Because if he can keep you away from
the Word and the study of God's Word,
then you're more vulnerable to be deceived.
If he says even the very elect can
be deceived, then you know what that tells
me?
That a lot of saved people are not
going to finish out the way they started.
Doesn't say they're going to lose their salvation.
He didn't say that.
But even Brother Randy, God's people.
I'm going to tell you something.
Over at Trinity in Asheville, there's some people
sitting at home today not going to church
that I never dreamed would not be faithful
to the Lamb of God.
People that I started serving the Lord with.
People that I got confidence in.
People that I would have thought I would
quit before they would quit.
But you know what happened?
They got deceived.
They either got their eyes on a man
or a crisis or a situation or a
personality.
And the devil, they were up at the
plate and he just hit them with a
hat, a fastball or high on the inside.
And they went down swinging.
And they're saved.
They're going to go to heaven.
They're not going to have any crowns.
They're not going to have any rewards.
They're going to get in by the skin
of their teeth.
That's no way to go to heaven.
And they're going to go in and they
got deceived in the last few days of
their life.
If we have any understanding, any intellectual ability
tonight, we ought to be saying, God, I
know that I need more of you and
less of me.
God, I need to know that you are
close and you could come.
And God, I need to know that salvation
is real.
It's not just a religious hocus-pocus.
A dead man can be made alive.
One day I was dead in my sin
and now I'm alive in Jesus forevermore.
You say, well, it's almost too simple.
It's almost moronic.
It's so simple.
I know God fixed it so even a
child could believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he had it fixed up that the
guy with the highest IQ over in the
university, he could believe just like this child
with simple faith and he could become a
Bible believer.
So Jesus warned them about deception.
And he's warning you tonight.
He's warning me tonight about this deception.
Now, notice this next phrase.
Verse 6, And you shall have wars and
rumors of war.
See that you be not trouble.
For all these things must come to pass.
Now, notice this next phrase.
But the end is not yet.
For nations shall rise against nation, kingdom against
kingdom.
And there shall be famine and pestilence and
earthquakes in diverse places.
Now, I believe the key verse is verse
number 8.
And what is the 8th verse?
All these are what?
The beginning of sorrows.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
We didn't go from noonday brightness out there
to midnight blackness.
We've just been through a transition.
And the transition is called sundown.
And we went from the brightness of noon
to the darkness of night.
And the way we accomplished that transition was
that we removed gradually light.
As the light was removed, and right about
dusk, we started losing color in our vision.
Things started taking on gray.
And then we went to shadows.
Till now, we can only see what is
illuminated by artificial light.
There's nothing to reflect back to my eye
and take that image.
So, as light left, darkness came in.
That transition is called sundown.
Spiritually, you are in the sundown of the
Word of God.
Now, listen to me.
I believe that sitting under this tent tonight
are people that will never experience the Undertaker.
I believe there are people under this tent.
You will never be embalmed.
You're never going to go to the Undertaker.
You're going to go meet the Uppertaker, but
not the Undertaker.
Now, some of us will have to go
by the grave.
And if we do, he said, I've already
cleaned that out and made that a nice
place until I come take you all home.
But I believe under the tent tonight are
people that will go out in the rapture
of the church.
I believe it could happen tonight.
Now, there are ten trumpets in the New
Testament and Old Testament that are important for
us to understand.
I don't have time to go through these
trumpets, but the ten trumpets of the New
Testament is the first trumpet, the rapture trumpet.
And then we find there are seven trumpets
in the Tribulation.
And the last trumpet that you're going to
find blown in the New Testament is Matthew
24, verse 31.
And that's the trumpet for the final end
-gathering when Jesus Christ is going to rule
and reign on this earth.
Now, those are the ten trumpets.
And if I had time, I mean, we
could spend a whole week on those ten
trumpets because the first trumpet is the sounding
of the trumpet for the rapture of the
church.
The last one, we've been through the seven
trumpets of judgment in the book of Revelation.
And that final and tenth trumpet is going
to be in Matthew 24, verse 31, where
God pulls Israel together.
Now, I believe the key verse I told
you is that eighth verse, all these are
the beginning of sorrows.
You can't have an end unless you have
a beginning to the end.
So how do I start the end?
I start taking out the light.
Now, if you will follow me for the
next minute or two, I'm just going to
merge two or three messages and just give
you some high points to think about.
In Matthew 24, let me first outline the
chapter for you.
If you have your paper and your pen
or if you write it in the margin
of your Bible, this will help you understand,
rightly divide the Word of God.
Because you can't take these last days apart
and understand them if you don't know the
context of the text.
Okay?
Matthew 24, we have God's Word dealing with
the Gentile kingdoms of this world.
The Gentiles.
And that occurs from verse 1 to verse
14.
Now, when God talks to the Gentile, what
is He talking to?
He's talking to every non-Jew that is
not saved.
Do you understand that?
If you're making a definition, Gentile equals, okay,
non-Jews, someone that is not a Jew.
Do we have anyone of Jewish heritage here
tonight?
Huh?
Do we have anyone here that is not
a Jew?
Would you raise your hand?
Okay.
Is there any non-Jew here tonight that
is not a believer?
I don't want you to raise your hand.
But if you are a non-Jew and
you're not a Christian, you're not a believer,
then Matthew 24, verse 1 through 14 is
written for you.
Okay?
Does that make sense?
You with me so far?
Verse 15.
Now, we're going to go to verse 15
and we're going to follow it.
And remember, all this is coming out of
the mouth of Jesus.
Verse 15, we go down to verse 31.
What did I just tell you?
Matthew 24, 31.
That's that last and final trumpet where He's
calling the Jew home.
All right, Matthew 24, 15 through 31, we
have God dealing with the Jew.
He's dealing with the Jew.
Okay?
You say, well, where's the church in Matthew
24?
Oh, it begins in verse 32.
And from verse 32 to verse 51, we
have God dealing with the church.
Okay?
Now, you've got three groups of people.
That way, God can deal with the church
and He can deal with the false church.
He can deal with the chosen, the seed
of Israel.
And we know that God's Word is talking
about there is going to be an end
time and Jesus is coming.
Now, if I look at verse 36, 37,
38, and 39 in this same chapter, all
right?
But of that day and hour knoweth no
man.
No, not the angels of heaven, but my
Father only.
Who said those words?
Jesus.
And what did Jesus say?
He said, nobody knows when the trumpet of
God's going to sound.
Now, I just told you a lot of
things about Bible prophecy.
But the one thing I can't tell you
is when Jesus is coming back.
And He did that on purpose because He
knows our makeup.
He knows our temperament.
He knows our nature.
And if we could figure out that Jesus
is coming on September the 10th, just a
few weeks, He knows that we would not
be worth anything until September the 9th.
I might as well fess up.
If I can figure it out, He's coming
on the 9th, on the 10th, then on
the 9th, I'm going to have me a
revival.
I'm going to get in this thing.
I'm going to go to church.
I'm going to write a tithe check.
Pastor, me and Mama are going to catch
up our tithe.
The Lord's coming in the morning.
Oh, we can't hardly wait.
And while I'm here, I've chased a CD.
We're going to put 25,000 in missions.
Oh, praise God.
It feels good to give.
Oh, and we want to help Brother Ralph
with that old tent.
Here's another 25,000.
I love that old boy.
He's precious.
They know that check's not going to clear.
Right, Hawk Man?
It ain't going to clear.
So what did God do?
God said, I'll tell you what I'm going
to do.
I'm not going to tell you.
I know how you're wired.
If you could figure it out, you wouldn't
be worth anything.
So I'll just hide that.
And He said, what?
Watch such an hour as you think not.
Behold, the Son of Man is coming.
So He said, I'm going to tuck that
away, and that way we'll have to live
every day like it's our last day.
So I get up every morning looking for
the Lord because it could be my last
day.
And I live every day, and I treat
other people like it's my last day or
their last day.
And by the way, it could be physically,
right?
It not only could be the Lord coming,
it could be my last day or your
last day.
So we ought to live for the Lord.
We ought to act like Jesus Christ.
And we ought to treat other people like
we'd want to be treated, as the trumpet
could sound at any moment, or they could
die and we could die.
Okay?
Now, here's what you need to remember.
He said, no man knows the day or
the hour.
So He said, well, I can tell you
guys are sincere.
Go back to the first part of this.
They're sitting down having a little pow-wow.
It's Jesus and the disciples.
And He said, you guys are sincere.
I can tell that.
So if you and your followers want to
know, whatever time, if I come back in
a year, or if I come back in
a thousand years, whenever I come back, it
doesn't matter.
When I come back, if you want to
know when I'm coming, I'm going to give
you the two clues that you can study
and know I'm not even at the door.
I'm not going to tell you the day
or the hour, but when you see certain
events, you'll know I'm here.
And what are those?
He said, study Noah days, study Lot days,
and when you see in your culture and
in your lifetime the things of Noah and
the things of Lot, and they merge.
See, if it was just Lot days, that
wouldn't be enough.
If it was just Noah days, that wouldn't
be enough.
But if you see Noah and Lot in
your culture, your society, at the same time,
and they're merging, then He said, you might
ought to get ready to go to heaven.
Because I'm not even at the door.