Conditions Near the End

And he says that these inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jewish and the Hebrew people, will not see him until that time, but it does indicate that they will see him as a people. And really that’s a key distinction in prophecy. Will the children of Israel actually, as a people, receive Christ? Will the children of Israel actually, as a people, turn to him? And this verse indicates that. You have to do a little bit of interpretive gymnastics to dodge that, but that’s kind of a fundamental part of the way that we view prophecy.

So in chapter 23 and verse 39, the Lord brings up this question of the destruction of Jerusalem and of his second coming. Now he says, if you’ll notice verse 36, verily I say unto you, all these things, which is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in the previous verses, all these things shall come upon this generation. So the disciples have heard this. Now this wasn’t directly spoken to the disciples because this is part of his sermon, his strong rebuke of the Pharisees and the scribes, but they no doubt heard it.

And then we go to chapter 24 and verse one and there’s a break. The Bible says this, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple. So at that point they were apparently in the temple grounds. So he concluded that conversation and now they’re walking out of the temple grounds and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. So as you can kind of put in your mind’s eye there, this temple complex is enormous.

And so they’re in one of the courtyard areas teaching. And so the Lord’s leaving with his disciples. And as you can imagine, they’re going down a series of stairs, there were a lot of stairs surrounding it and they were going down and there are these enormous blocks and they’re still there. You can identify them to this day, especially in the Western wall. And there’s these enormous blocks.

And so no doubt they were going down and as they were walking out to the Mount of Olives, they’re pointing these things out. And it kind of revealed, they were saying, look Lord, these amazing stones and all these things. And remember Herod built all that, Herod the wretch built these things. This is Herod’s temple. And they’re still kind of wowed, which is interesting because by this time, they should know the nature of Christ’s kingdom at this point is it’s spiritual.

That’s what he said, the pilot, it is primarily spiritual. It won’t always be that way, but it is at this time. And yet they’re still enamored with the physical. They’re still enamored with the big buildings. Is that not true in our day as well? People are still enamored with big buildings.

But that was true of the disciples. So they were looking at it and wow, look at this and look at that. And the Lord just totally reigns on their parade in verse number two. And Jesus said unto them, see not all these things, verily I say unto thee, unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. So the Lord snaps them back into reality that this temple that you think is something special is gonna be raised to the ground.

And one thing I read, this was from Josephus because this particular prophecy actually came to pass in very real terms because when the Romans invaded the city and they set the temple on fire, because the temple wasn’t only stone, it was also wood. And when they set it on fire, it burned so hot, the record says it burned so hot that it melted the gold that was in the temple and it liquefied it and the gold then dripped down between the cracks of the stones.

And the Romans saw seeing that, were so eager to get at the gold that they had to literally disassemble the temple stone by stone to get at it. So which is interesting because the Lord says not one stone will be left upon another and really it was completely demolished to the ground. And this was all a judgment as we’ve covered before. And so that’s what the Lord says.

So they’re walking out of the temple and they point out all these different, the buildings of the temple, and it wasn’t just the temple, there was like a colony, there’s a courtyard, and all of these beautiful things, huge stones, beautiful stones. And the Lord says they’ll all be thrown down. And then there’s a break. Verse three, the Bible says, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, so that was while they were leaving the temple and now they’re in the Mount of Olives, they’re at the top of the mountain.

As they 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. So let me ask you a question. They’re asking him when these things will be. What things do you think the Lord is referring to, or the disciples rather are referring to?

Any ideas? You can just blurt it out, it’s fine. You think it’s destruction of Jerusalem? Does that seem reasonable? Now, because there are breaks in this conversation. It’s not one cohesive conversation. And really this is important because that wasn’t their only question. It wasn’t when shall these things be only, referring to the destruction of Jerusalem. If you read into it a little bit, and this doesn’t take a lot of reading into it, you can get the impression that they think that the destruction of Jerusalem and the coming of Christ and the end of the world are all kind of together.

You notice that? They ask the questions altogether as if they’re all a single event. And of course we know that in our day theology, there are versions of theology and positions of theology that teach that actually, but they just blend them all together. And which is interesting because it helps us understand kind of the way they’re thinking about if the temple is destroyed, I mean, that’s gotta be the end.

And we know that that’s not, that certainly was not the end. But they ask these three questions. When shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?

Now, as we read, we’re gonna read verses four through verse number eight tonight. And as we read these verses, I just want to point out that what you will not find because they ask, what shall be the sign of thy coming? Now a sign, a sign, that’s an important word in scripture. Sometimes the word sign is used to refer to an event that someone that happens that is because it is a sign, it is so distinctive that it’s unmistakable, right?

It is a sign, a sign is something that is so distinctive and a sign is not its own thing, it represents something else or it points to something else. For instance, as we’ve gone through Matthew, we’ve seen the signs of the various healings where Jesus would heal a blind man or a leper. Those were signs because it was an event that pointed to his deity or to his power, right?

So the sign was not the main event, the main event was the thing that it taught or reflected. Well, a sign in order to be an actual sign, it has to be something that is distinct. It can’t be ambiguous, it can’t be ambiguous. For instance, if Jesus said, you know, you’re gonna be healed leper and now go to the hospital, you know, like modern faith healers do, now go to the hospital and they’ll take care of you and maybe over a period of six months after they treat your disease, that wouldn’t be much of a sign, would it?

Because it’s not distinctive. But signs in scripture are distinctive. And so they’re asking him, what is the sign? Something distinctive. And what you’re not gonna find in verses four through eight is a sign. Now let’s read it and then ask yourself, is there anything in here that’s super distinctive that would qualify as a sign? 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 nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Now notice all the plurals. Many shall come in my name, deceive many, wars in the plural, rumors of wars.

He says famines, plural, pestilences, earthquakes. Now, if it was a single earthquake, you could call that maybe a sign. If it was a particular war, you could call that a sign. If it was a particular antichrist figure, one. But this is all plural. You see what I’m saying? These are not so much signs. In fact, the word signs is not used. Actually, let’s just go ahead and look at it.

The word sign is used later in verse 15. Actually, it’s not used in verse 15, but it is used later. But look at verse 15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place. You know what that is? That’s a sign. Because that is a single, unmistakable event in a single location. Okay, go down to verse 29.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven. Now, when you see the moon darkened and the sun, the sun darkened and the moon not give her light, that is a distinctive event if there ever was one, right?

That is something that has never happened and will never happen again. And so when that happens, you know something that represents something major. That represents something serious, right? That’s a sign. The problem is that in modern prophetic teaching, all of these wars and rumors of wars have all been taken as signs. And the danger of that is to lead people to believe that a certain event is imminent, but you’re not dealing with a sign.

You see, when you read the signs of 15 and 29 and 30, when the people of that day see those things, like Christ is about to come, like he is like at the door. But that’s not true of verses four through eight. These you might call these general conditions because there’s many of them. It’s kind of a broad sort of development of events. They’re not instant signs that are super clear as far as which one is being referred to.

So you gotta keep that in mind. There are no signs in verses four through eight. And so, you know, you look at Iran, what’s happening with Iran, all right? That’s a war. That’s a rumor of a war. You take what’s happening with, what happened with COVID. It’s a pestilence. But COVID is not the only pestilence. Is that the sign that Jesus is coming? Or is it the Spanish flu in the early 1900s?

Or is it the bubonic plague in the 1500s? You see what I’m saying? There have been multiple of them. So which one is it? And in each succeeding generation, there’s somebody that says, see, that’s, see, see, see? But the problem is we’re not looking at signs. We’re looking at general conditions. So as these things become prevalent, you know we’re moving forward in the timeline. That’s the best you can get from these conditions.

Because conditions take time to develop. The other thing I want to point out to you in this, go back at verse number three, is the word end. Look at verse three.

The disciples ask him, tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Now notice in verse number six, you should hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

Then you go down to verse number 13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this is not the only references to the end. If you look down at verse number 30, verse number 30 is the end.

Because verse number 30, when Jesus appears, and he comes in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, that is the end. That is it. The end is his coming. Now why do I say that? It’s important that we understand that, because the second coming of Christ in judgment for his kingdom is that climactic event that the disciples are asking about.

Now the danger here is to read the word end and think rapture. Okay, that’s a danger. Because in our mind, that’s something we’ve been taught about the rapture of the church. And that’s something we’ll cover at a later time. But in the context, the end is referring to the glorious, visible, powerful, judgmental, if you will, second coming of Christ from heaven. When the heavens are opened, what we read in Revelation chapter 19, the final culminating climactic event where Jesus comes and judges his enemies and sets up his kingdom.

That’s what’s being described as the end. Now, I’m just putting that out there for now. We’ll come back to that later. But what I want you to see is the definition of the end in the context. Because what happens is people bring in their own definitions of the end that are not in the context, and they kind of parachute those definitions in, and that confuses the whole thing.

It confuses the whole thing. So you just keep those things in your mind, the end of verse three, the end of verse number six, and also in verse 30, and that will help us as we move forward. Now look at verse number five. The Bible, Jesus says to this, now starting to talk about these conditions now. As we approach the end, but not the end. Now I say not the end because in verse number six, Jesus said, but the end is not yet.

So these conditions do not mean that Jesus is coming immediately. You understand that? His second advent is not imminent just because these conditions exist. You see that? The end is not yet. That’s why I call them general conditions. Now when you get to the signs later on in the chapter, it is absolutely about to happen. But we’re not there yet. The Lord says in verse four, take heed that no man deceive you.

For many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many. Now notice this. This is describing the religious scene as we approach the end, but we’re still not there. This is describing the religious scene. Now note in this description, the description is basically a description of increasing deception. And the source of this, verse five, for many shall come in my name, here’s the deception, saying I am Christ.

So these are people, anybody who comes after Jesus Christ and says I am Christ. Now notice this. The word Christ just means anointed. So you could take this in the most general sense. When we say Christ, we think of one individual. We think of Jesus Christ. But Christ is actually a title. His name is Jesus. His human name is Jesus Christ. In other words, if you take the name Jesus, that is his historical human identification, if you wanna be super technical about it.

So when you put Jesus with Christ, you know what you’re saying? That that man born in Bethlehem, Jesus of Nazareth, that historical figure is the Christ, the Son of God. Do you understand? By putting them together, you’re identifying his humanity with his deity, right? In this case, however, another person is saying I am Christ. You know what that is? That is a denial of Jesus Christ. That is a denial of his identity.

If another person comes along and says I am Christ, they are denying that Jesus of Nazareth was Christ. You understand? And you’re gonna see why this matters in a minute, but here’s what they’re doing. This is the deception now.

So this is actually an attack on the deity and person of Christ. That’s how we should understand it. If someone were to steal my identity, right? Like we see going on in our day, people stealing credit cards and passports and things like that, and they say I am Adam, that isn’t a front to my identity, because in truth, I am that individual, but you are falsely representing yourself as him.

Now notice also in verse five, he says many shall come in my name. You know what they’re saying? Jesus sent me. Jesus sent me. I represent him. Even though they were not sent by him. In other words, they take upon themselves his name and they use his name. You know what that tells us about this deception? Remember, we’re talking about generalized conditions. This deception, there’s a strong indication that there is a Christian version of this deception, because remember, these deceivers are taking his name.

It’s not Buddhist. It’s not even Muslim. It’s Christian deception. Think about that. And actually, this dovetails perfectly with what we’ll see in just a minute. This is a deception that is done in the name of Christ. How many religions have popped up? You think of the Roman Pope. The Roman Pope, he calls himself the vicar of Christ, the substitute for Christ. He says I am speaking in his stead.

That’s called speaking from the chair, ex cathedra, which is speaking from the chair in Rome. He’s saying I am speaking in the place of Christ. How is that different than this? And you know, he’s just one. He’s just one. Now, he’s an old one and a well-established one, but he’s one of these deceivers that come in their in Christ name, but are not sent by Christ. They claim I am the anointed, right?

They call themselves Holy Father, and these other titles, the high priest, and so on and so forth, even the word Pope, it means father, right? So you have all of these things that, and again, this is just one example, but these people, as well as many others, usurping roles that uniquely belong to Jesus Christ.

And so this is the kind of deception that we see here. Now take a break here and go to 1 John chapter two, 1 John chapter two, verse number 18.

Now remember, just keep in your mind what Matthew says. Matthew says that one of the religious condition prior to the end, which we’ve already defined that, the religious condition is a multiplication of deceivers, but deceivers in the name of Christ, okay? The Christian version. Now look at 1 John chapter two, verse number 18.

Little children, it is the last time. Think about that. How long ago did John write this? Man, this is 1900 years, right? John is the oldest disciple. We assume he wrote this sometime. Well, we know he wrote it prior to his death. That was a pretty dumb comment.

But this is shortly before the turn of the first century. Listen closely to what John is saying. It is the last time. You know what John is saying there? And this is not the only time we’ll see it. He’s saying we’re in the last days. That’s what he’s saying. And how do we know that? Here it is. And as you have heard that antichrist shall come, now this is not the figure, but this is just generally, antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time.

So how do you know you’re in the last days? Well, you put this together with what Jesus said in Matthew 24, it’s the multiplication of deceivers who say, I am Christ, or who usurp his authority and in his name, deceive people, right? That is antichrist, especially by attacking his person.

And if you go back to, hold your place in 1 John, go back to Acts chapter two. I wanna show you one other place here that helps us establish this whole last days thing. A lot of people think, well, we’re really in the last days now. Well, hold on, hold on, that’s not right. John just said he was in the last days.

Acts chapter two, Peter is preaching at Pentecost in Acts chapter two, and Peter quotes a prophecy from Joel chapter two. And in chapter two, verse number 16, Peter says this, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.

And on my servants and on my handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy. Now, Peter is citing, now follow me, because I don’t want us to get lost. I want us to look at Joel in just a minute. But remember, Peter is citing Joel because of the outpouring of the spirit of God on Pentecost. He’s saying this is a fulfillment of Joel chapter two, where Joel said in the last days, God would pour out his spirit.

So that means that’s the last days. Now go back to Joel chapter two, if you would. Don’t lose first John, because we’re coming back there. Joel, right before Amos, does that help?

Joel chapter two, verse number 28. Now this is what Peter was quoting. I want you to read it carefully. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams. Your young men shall see visions. And also upon the servants and upon the handmaidens in those days will I pour out my spirit.

All right, that’s what Peter’s talking about and that’s what happened at Pentecost. Why did Peter call it the last days? And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillar of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord come. Does that sound familiar? What’s it sound like?

It sounds like the end. Sounds like one of those signs in Matthew chapter 24. You know what it is? It is. What Jesus is saying is not new. It’s actually prophesied in the Old Testament. Keep reading. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord has said and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Listen to Joel. Now follow me. In Joel’s prophecy, that is fulfilled at least in part at Pentecost. But in the prophecy, all the pouring out of the Spirit of God in Joel chapter two is connected to the signs of the second coming of Christ in Matthew 24. Now we know that Matthew 24 hasn’t happened yet. But you can understand if you read this, you read Joel chapter two, why Peter said the last days.

Because it looks like it’s all together. Everybody on the same page? It looks like the pouring out of the Spirit in Joel two and the signs that mark the end are all at one time. And so Peter called it the last days. Here’s the truth, and I want us to take away as we move forward. We are in the last days. We’ve been in the last days ever since the time of Peter, ever since the fulfillment of that according to Joel.

We’ve been right on the edge of the coming of Christ. So prophetically, we are in the last days. It’s not to come, we’re here. We’re here from a prophecy perspective. That’s what the Bible says. Now if you would go back to 1 John, 1 John chapter two confirms that because it says, just like Jesus said, we know we’re in the last days because of the multiplication of the antichrists in the plural.

So don’t be confused, this is not talking about the antichrists. This is talking about antichrists. Look at chapter two, verse number 22, 1 John 2 22. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. That denieth Father and the Son. You see, just like Jesus said, if someone claims I am Christ, you know what they’re doing?

They’re denying that Jesus is the Christ. And this denial, John says, to deny that Jesus is the Christ is antichrist, which the word antichrist, as you probably figured out, means against Christ, right?

Which is exactly what the Lord is referring to. And not only that, but any denial of the relationship between the Father and the Son is also part of the doctrine of antichrist. That’s what verse 22 says. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. It is an attack on Jesus’ deity, because to be the Son of God is to be equal with God.

That’s what the scriptures say plainly. Look at chapter four of the same book. Chapter four, verse number two. The Bible says, hereby know ye the Spirit of God, and every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist.

Now notice what it says. Whereof ye have heard that it should come? Now that’s something Jesus said. He said, the conditions that will prevail prior to the end is a multiplication of deceivers, antichrists, right? Now he didn’t say antichrists, but he said those who say I am Christ falsely. Now notice he says, and even now, verse three, already is it in the world. So what I want you to see is John recognizes that already in his day, the thing that Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24 is happening.

It’s already happening. Look at 2 John, we’re that close. 2 John, verse number seven. 2 John, verse seven is similar. He says this, for many deceivers are entered, notice the word deceivers, that’s the same word Jesus described, the multiplication of deceivers, are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and antichrist. You might ask, what does it mean they confess not that Jesus has come in the flesh?

That is an attack on his nature because Jesus Christ is both 100% man and 100% God. Sometimes the deity is attacked and sometimes the humanity is attacked, but in either case, you’re attacking who he is. And if you say he didn’t come in the flesh, then the question is who is Jesus of Nazareth?

You see, it’s a denial of him. This is what it means to be antichrist. This is what our Lord is talking about back in Matthew 24. You can go back there and we’ll go to the next verse. Many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many. So is it any wonder that John says, you know you’re in the last days when you start to see the spirit of antichrist.

There it is, Jesus said it, John said, you knew already that this was going to come and now it’s happened. That’s been 1900 years ago. Verse number six. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that you be not troubled for all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places.

Now notice this, just as verses four and five describe the religious scene, verses six and seven describe the political or you might say the natural scene. The wars describe the politics and the pestilences, famines and earthquakes describe the natural scene. Now this is one reason why I call this a condition and not a sign because wars have always been happening. Like always been happening, they have never let up.

So how do you know which war indicates the coming of Christ? See that’s why I say it’s not a sign. It’s nothing new but what we could say is that as the end approaches, there is a generalized increase in these kinds of things.

There’s a generalized increase in COVID, right? Pestilences. Now, and I say that I don’t wanna engage in like headline prophecy or anything like that but can anyone deny a worldwide virus and its effect upon humanity as at least not in a general way fitting in to the conditions being described here? Now is it, again, we’re looking at conditions, it’s not a sign but that was a major thing in the world, before that was the Spanish flu, before that was the bubonic plague.

These things happen but the fact that they’re happening is fulfilling the conditions, the generalized conditions. Now, remember in verse number six, Jesus says, even though these conditions might pervade, the end is not yet. So even though we might see deceivers and false Christs and antichrists, which we do, even though we might see wars and rumors of wars and pestilences and earthquakes and famines, and we do, it does not mean, it does not necessarily mean that Christ, the end, the return of the second coming of Christ is right at the door.

It could be some time off yet because again, we’re dealing with conditions. We’re dealing with conditions. In other words, they’re not a reliable sign to say Jesus will come within X number of days and you know everybody that guesses it, right, makes themselves look a complete fool.

Even though that’s the case, these conditions will persist just prior to Christ coming. So even though we can’t look at them and set a date, yet we see them on the increase and it does make us think, all right, the Lord said these conditions would persist prior to his coming. Now, look at verse number eight. The Bible says all these are the beginning of sorrows. So verse eight kind of summarizes what we’ve looked at so far.

These are beginning of sorrows. In other words, there is more sorrow to come and that’s what we read in nine through 13. And then down in verse number 21, look at what it says. For then shall be great tribulation. Now, be careful, the word great tribulation there is not a name of the period. It’s a description of the period. It’s terrible trouble. And here’s how we know that this is unique.

Look what it says. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. You know what that means? That means that the trouble that comes upon the world in verse number 21 is unique in world history. Never before, never after. You know what that is? That’s a prophetic sign. Something that happens only one time in world history is a prophetic sign.

Everybody still with me? A little bit, a little bit. All right, the last thing I wanna show you is this and this will kind of tie it all together. Look at 1 Timothy chapter four, 1 Timothy chapter four. Here’s what it says.

First Timothy chapter four, verse number one. The Bible says this, now, we laid the groundwork so that we could get to this passage. that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. Now stop a minute. Are we in the latter times? Are we in the last days? Yes, we are. But Paul is speaking to a future time even further. Okay? Are you with me? Because he’s using future tense.

He says that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. Notice the description. You know what he’s describing here? The spiritual condition that prevails in the latter days, but latter from Paul’s time. So to Paul’s future. Now go to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and this will be our last passage. 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 1. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come. You see that? Shall come.

My goodness. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it. My goodness. I could not imagine a more apt description of the time in which we live than this. Maybe everyone before us has thought the same thing. I don’t know. But I guess I would just repeat them. Now in the last days, Paul’s time is the last time. But I guess I would just repeat them. Now again, he says last days, but he’s referring to a future time to him.

Perilous times shall come. But we know we’re already in the last days. Now think about it. If Paul is, Paul himself is in the last days according to scripture. Right? But if he is referring to the last days, I don’t know if to us that’s future still. Or if we’re there, I can’t say for certain. I can say a lot of these descriptions describe our society. I can say that.

But exactly nailing it down I can’t say. But what I can say is if Paul described this in the last days, we are much, much, much, much closer to this period than Paul ever was. Are we not? We are. Of all the descriptions we’ve seen so far, look at verse 5, which brings us back to Matthew 24. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. So among the description of you might say the spiritual degrade that’s happening in the world, that’s happening, you know, it just says men shall be among men, among mankind, among that is the mixture of religion. They have a form of godliness.

It’s not secular, it’s religious. It’s religious wickedness. That is exactly what we read in Matthew. Before the end, in those preparatory conditions we see, they’re going to come in Christ’s name. Denying him, but yet speaking in his name. That’s the spiritual condition. And it is in chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, it’s expanded and explained in more detail. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away. Notice this, for this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Ever learning. You know, we are the smartest and most knowledgeable people that have ever lived on the face of the earth simply because we have access to the most amount of information.

You know, that’s actually predicted in Daniel. Did you know that? Knowledge shall increase. But why do I say all that? Well first of all, I want you to see that we’re, in these various passages, 1 John, 1 and 2 Timothy, we’re looking at the same thing, which is these general conditions that will prevail as we approach the end. Not the end, but as we approach it. Okay? Everybody on the same page?

Now here’s the thing. We’ve seen the primarily spiritual and religious conditions, but we’ve also seen societal conditions. Now look down at verse number 13. So he gives all these conditions of the last days. He describes perilous times will come. And then he encourages Timothy. He says, Timothy, you live godly even if you’re persecuted. Verse 12. Notice 13. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Seducers?

Evil men? Deceivers? That’s Matthew 24. Are they going to get better or worse? He’s already talking about the last, last days, right? The last, of the last days. And he says, it’s going to get worse. Okay, so here’s the thing, here’s the thing you’ve got to take from this. Every day that passes, we are nearing the end. Okay? That’s without question. And there are some people that believe that as we approach the coming of Christ, things will better.

The Bible says exactly the opposite. And I didn’t even go to all the passages for time. The Bible says the reverse. That evil men and seducers false Christs, anti-Christs will be on the rise. Just prior. That is a condition that will be prevalent just before the end, the Lord actually returns. So again, we’re talking about general conditions. This is the beginning of Matthew 24, right? And really, if I were to, sometimes some of this stuff’s kind of hard to nail down exactly where we live in it. You know, people have been trying to do that since Christ’s time. But if I were to nail down, one thing we do know is we are far closer to the coming of Christ, of course, than they ever were. And that’s just a logical fact.

But the conditions seem to be ripening also spiritually. Right? They seem to be ripening. Now we can’t put a time on it. We can’t say it will be in this amount of time. It might be a long time yet. We can’t know that. But we do know that we are approaching it. And what should we expect moving forward? I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

But according to the Scripture, it’s going to get worse. The spiritual condition of our world is going to degrade before Christ returns. Ouch. Do you know what Paul says in the next verse? Anybody have their Bible still open to that, 2 Timothy 3, 13? What’s 14 say? Boom. You know, he says things are getting worse. And so that is the exhortation to you. Yeah, things are degrading. Just look at the religious world. Brother Vernon, think about our church in the 80s.

Right? And the 90s. Full of people. Right? And I know Greenville, South Carolina is not the whole world. I get that. But that’s everywhere. And it’s just a huge decline that’s happening. And you know what? That’s discouraging to the Christian. It is. We should have a lot more people. We should be interested in things with God. And woe is me. Things are bad. But the exhortation is, but continue thou. You as an individual. Evil men and seducers are waxing worse and worse. But you, the Lord’s talking to you as an individual. He’s saying, you hold close to the Lord and you continue like nothing’s changed.

Right? That’s what it means to watch. Right? You know he’s coming. Right? You want to be faithful. You want to be found faithful. Right? Even though there’s degrades going all around us. Let’s pray together.