Turn with me in your Bibles to
2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I've
titled this message Sign of the Times and I'm going to go ahead
and as they call it, give you a spoiler alert. The sign of
the times has never changed. It's always been the same. It's
the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is
the sign that we seek. He is the sign that we need.
And I pray this hour the Lord would show us that. In 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2, let's read verse 1 through 4. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled,
whether by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you
by any means. For that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be
revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that
he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that
he is God. Because of Paul's original letter
to the church of Thessalonica, he mentions to them about the
coming of the Lord. And because of this letter, some
had deceived others by misconstruing those words in so much as they
were saying, well, the Lord's going to come back any second,
any second, he's going to come back. And we know why that they
did that, and I'm gonna quote to you 1 Corinthians 2.14, it
says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. The natural man cannot
receive the things that are spiritual, it's impossible. It's not a calculated
probability, it's a literal impossibility. The flesh cannot receive the
things of the Spirit. These were taking the words that
Paul was giving spiritually and they were misconstruing it into
something they could grab a hold of, something that they could
cling to, something that they could see, something that they
could do. And many people followed after them. Paul, hearing of
this deception, he hears of what's going on. He hears that they
have believed this lie, then writes them a second letter.
He's addressing the particular issue that was found from the
first letter that he wrote. He's told them in the first letter,
but of the times and the seasons, as we heard Wednesday night,
we looked, or last Sunday, we looked at this, but of the times
and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write into
you. for yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh
as a thief in the night." They thought that the Lord's return
was so nigh that they sold their possessions. They sold their
houses. They sold their lands. They were
meeting together all the time in the Lord's house. They weren't
working anymore. They stopped everything. And
Paul says in the next chapter of this letter, if you don't
work, you don't eat. You have to work. He addresses
this issue because as the Lord's people, we do desire his return
and we are looking for his return every single second. And that's
how we live our lives, isn't it? We live every day in hopes
of his return, excuse me. We live every moment with the
anticipation of him returning, knowing that he's going to come
back for his people. That's our hope. Lord, don't leave us to
let me be numbered with that number. Don't leave us to ourself.
And we do hope in this, but we do work also, don't we? We have
jobs. Man must eat bread by the sweat
of his face, the scripture says. So what do we do while we're
working? Well, we work with anticipation of his return. Every second that
ticks by, Lord, is this going to be the moment? Is this going
to be the moment? It'll be the last moment, won't it? As soon
as he comes back, that's the end of time. That's the last
moment. That's what we're looking for with great anticipation. And we don't quit our jobs. We
know we have to work. But all because someone used
the phrase Christ is soon coming, men latched on to that and said,
well, let's just quit everything then. Let's just sit around a
campfire and sing kumbaya till he comes back. And that's not
faith. No, that's not faith. Faith looks
to Christ all the time. We do our due diligence with
whatever our hand finds to do, by the Lord's grace, by the Lord's
mercy, looking unto Him, looking unto Him. We do it with all of
our might. Men have not changed since this
time of second Thessalonians. They use the same scare tactic.
You know the verse in Romans, it says, and now, and that knowing
the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for
now is our salvation nearer than when we believe. Now to the believer,
when we hear that, we rejoice. Now it's every second that ticks
by. I am one second closer to seeing him face to face. Well,
that's, There's hope in that, isn't there? It's one second
closer to being conformed to his image, one step closer to
dropping this dead corpse that I've carried around my entire
life. What hope we have in the Lord's finished work and what
hope we have in being found in him. But men will take that verse
and say, it's time to wake up out of sleep. For now, as your
salvation nearer, they flip it and say, you better wake up. You better do better. You better
try harder. It's time to wake up out of sleep.
That word sleep is rest. What is Paul saying? He says,
knowing the time. that we are in time. It's time
to rest on nothing else but the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
he's talking about. Wake up out of sleep. He's saying, look to
Christ. It's it's the same message page
after page after page. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ
all by grace. He's not saying that you're living
in sin. You better clean up your life.
The Lord's playing hide and go seek and he's going to come back
and find sin. You're in trouble. No. No, the Lord doesn't play
games, does he? No, he put away the sin of his
people. He will find no sin upon his people upon his return. Isn't
that glorious? There won't be one sin that he
discovers upon his people upon their return. He will find them
perfectly righteous just as he's made them to be. These in Thessalonica
had been duped into believing The same lie as free will works
religion to some degree and Paul is writing to them in love. Paul
says, knowing the time don't rest in anything but the Lord
Jesus Christ don't we look to the Lord's coming in hope. In hope in rejoicing not in a
fatalist mentality we hope in his coming and we every second
that passes by we do unto him not for salvation but looking
unto him through the eyes of faith, you know. Nothing in this
flesh can contribute anything spiritually. And I've tried to
make that as clear as I could, especially of late. That way
my words wouldn't be misconstrued. But don't you love the thought
that every time the Lord looks at his people, all that he sees
is what they're doing spiritually in the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't
that amazing? He sees perfect works. He sees perfect righteousness.
He sees goodness coming forth from you. If we're his, that's
what he sees. That's all he sees. I love that.
There's hope in that. That's why we don't look to anything
but Him. He's all of our hope. These in our text, they really
didn't start cleaning up their lives on the opposite. They took
it the other step and they became fatalists. This ain't the last
group that became fatalists. I mentioned this Wednesday night
and told you I'd mentioned it again this morning by the Lord's
grace. There was, I don't know how much you can trust Wikipedia
and Google if you look up information. I think some of it's probably
true, and so I'm going to give you some of it that I believe
to be true. I know that a book was written in 1988. I heard
about it in the 90s when I was a kid. 88 Reasons Why the Lord
Will Return, or Could Return in 88. And boy, they sold millions
of copies. New York bestseller, you know,
New York Times bestseller, whatever. He didn't come back in 88, did
he? No, he didn't come back in 88. Well, what about other men
that stood? There's a televangelist, there's
a televangelist that got on the TV, maybe you remember his name
was Jack Van Imp. I guess I'm saying that right.
2014, he said, the Lord's coming back in 2014. Boy, people bought
into that, didn't they? They said, OK, this is going
to be his return. Remember the year 2000? Everybody was talking, boy, this
is the end. This may be the start of his millennial reign. This
is the end of time. There's too much evidence showing
that this can't, this has got to be it. This is his return.
Boy, you better clean up your life now if you're ever going
to. You're out of time. That's scare tactics that men use, isn't
it? That's what happened with our brethren here in Thessalonica.
They thought, well, what's the point? If it's over, what's the
point of doing anything? Well, the other people would
say, well, if it's over, I better hurry up and do a whole bunch.
Both ideologies are wrong. Both of them are wrong. The believer's
life is completely in anticipation of a true hope, not a hope that's
frivolous, but a hope that's in that has substance. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. We have a substance to our hope,
not just a, not just a, well, I hope I get that promotion. I hope I make it home safe. And
no, that's not hope. Hope is by the faith of Christ
that looks to him. That's how we live our life,
isn't it? Looking to him in anticipation of his return. He's our hope.
His return is our hope. Man wrote, and you will remember
this, I know you will. He had the book series, Left
Behind. You remember that book series?
Oh man, that was a big hit, wasn't it? It was all about something
you can see. What's the future gonna hold?
Show me this sign, let me see this wonder. And everybody bought
all into that. They made movies about it and everything. Millions
of dollars had to be made. I'm probably low-balling that,
but you know it's true. Men wanted to see something and
they latched onto that. And that's what we do by nature
if the Lord allows us to. We're looking for something we
can see with our physical eye. Thankfully, the Lord gives us
faith that looks to Christ. All these things had, One thing
is their common denominator, one core, one core issue. It was all fear driven. It was
all manipulation driven. It was all about self. None of
these things that I just mentioned pointed to the Lord in hope.
None of these things I mentioned pointed to him and caused the
believer to rest. Everything about what I've just
mentioned about everyone writing books and the things that they
were doing, didn't give any hope, did it? It caused unrest. But
everything about our Lord gives his people rest, gives his people
hope. That's what faith does. It just
looks to the Lord and rests and trusts completely in him. We're not looking for a sign.
We're not looking for something new. We're looking for Christ.
We're hoping to see him. And in seeing him, we rest. These individuals were going
off of sight, not faith. And it created the outcome of
fatalism here at Thessalonica. And a fatalist, I wanna be brief
on this, but a fatalist is a person that believes that all events
are inevitable, so one's choices or actions make no difference
whatsoever. Everything's inevitable, everything's gonna happen, and
there's nothing I can do about it. That's a fatalist. That's what fatalists
believe. Faith looks to Christ and you and I know that it is
finished. But we know that not because we read the book and
come to a conclusion. Faith looks to Christ and says
it is finished because he said it is finished. I believe that.
Now does that excuse us to do whatsoever we want to as far
as a frivolous lifestyle, being a fatalist or being antinomian,
no law, lawless lies? I wish I could live the way that
I want to. It would be in perfect honor unto him every single second
of every single day. I truly believe that that's the
heart of the believer, don't you? I wish that I could live
like I want to live, and it would just be in perfect obedience,
never taking my eyes off of him. Yet here we are in this corpse
that we're carrying, this anchor of the flesh that holds us back,
that keeps us doing the things which we would not do. I'm so
thankful for grace, aren't you? I'm so thankful he sees me. He
sees the blood. That's our hope. It's not what
we do. So we don't look at what we do or what we don't do. We
look to Christ and we don't throw up our hands and say, whatever's
going to happen is going to happen. No, we look to Christ and say,
Lord, If there's going to be anything good that I produce,
you're going to have to do it. You're going to have to. I can't
do it. That doesn't mean I don't want to do it. That which I would
do, I do not. That which I would not, that's
what I find myself doing. Lord, keep me. Lord, cause me. Lord, make me. That's the prayer
of the believer, isn't it? We're not fatalists and we're
not antinomians. We're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our title. Believers that he finished the work and our life
is hid with Christ in God and we live our life looking unto
him in every single moment and every single moment of every
single day. Well, Lord, I I don't see myself looking to you all
the time. That new man does all the time. And God is pleased
with that new man. Rest, rest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Fatalism is not of God because
it's not of faith. Faith looks to Christ. Faith
looks to Christ. If a man or a woman says something
along the lines of a fatalist mentality, it's not saying Christ
is all, is it? It's not saying rest in Christ.
It's saying, well, whatever's going to happen is going to happen.
There's nothing I can do about it. Faith says Christ is all. Do you see
the difference? Christ is all. Rest in Him. That's what the
Lord teaches His people. Faith runs to the Lord. Faith
believes that Christ is the only remedy for sin. Yes, whatever's
going to happen is going to happen because God is seated on the
throne. We know that. But we don't just know that by
a calculated algorithm of our brain's computer. We know that
by faith. We believe God is seated and
everything that's going to happen is going to happen. And we rejoice
in that. Not as like, well, it's the end times. Oh, it's woe is
me and woe is the world. No, no, we rejoice evermore in
the Lord's finished work. We rejoice in him knowing that
he is seated and it is finished. Faith believes him and hopes
in him, has complete confidence in him and his finished work.
Faith is totally dependent on Him in everything. Completely
looking to Him, but do you hang your ever, your immortal soul,
do you hang your hope on anything else but the finished work of
Christ? No. He's it. That's all I hope in
is what He's done. Do you have any hope in what
you do at any time? No. No, I have no hope in what
I do at any time. I've got to have Him. That's
faith. That's faith, believing Him. believing Him, absolutely,
totally relying on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Well, knowing the information
that he's given us here, knowing the things that he's spoken of
regarding the second coming of the Lord, what do we do? We look
to Christ. We look to Christ now, and we
look to Christ now, and we look to Christ, and we pray that he
causes us to. We know we can't on our own. That doesn't excuse
us, but we know we can't. Lord, cause me to. Cause me to
rest in you at all times. Cause me to do everything looking
to the Lord. And that's what Paul's encouraging
to do here. He's telling them, look again
in verse two, that ye be not soon shaken in mind or troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. Don't fear. Don't react
because of fear. Look to Christ. Look unto the
Lord. Believe on him. He's our rest. He's our only hope. No man knoweth
the time, Christ told, when the Lord was speaking in Matthew
24, he said, no man knoweth the hour. No man knoweth the hour.
Not even the angels in heaven know the hour of the return.
He said, only it's given to me of my father. The Lord is the
only one that knows when he's going to return. Don't be duped
into believing somebody that tells you, I know exactly when
the Lord's coming back. I will tell you this, I know
exactly when he's gonna come back, whenever he decides to,
whenever he says, go fetch him, and he comes back with glorious
proclamation of the trumpet, that's when he's gonna come back.
When is that going to be? When he's purposed it. Do you believe that?
Is that your hope? That's my hope. It's nothing
to do with what I know, it's everything about him. That's
what faith does, is it just rests in him. Whatever he's purposed,
we rejoice in that, don't we? Whatever he's prepared, we rejoice
in that. We ain't gotta figure it out,
we can't figure it out. We rest in Him. The Lord told
him, no man knoweth the time, but it'll be as the days of,
He told him this, He said, it'll be as the days of Noah, where
they were eating, they were drinking, they were given in marriage.
But the Lord showed me something in that that I've never saw before.
And what it says about Noah, but Noah, while they were eating,
drinking, married, given in marriage, Noah was in the ark. waiting
for the door to close. Now, what does that mean? That's
how we live our life. That is exactly how we live our
life. We hope that we are in the ark, and when the door closes,
when the trump of God shall sound, we'll be found in the ark. That's
our hope. That's our hope. Not that we built the ark, but
it's Christ himself, and that he has caused us to be found
in the ark by his doing. That's the life of the believer,
isn't it? Lord, I wanna be found in the ark, so that when you
close the door, I'll be found in you, cause it to be so. You
know that the scripture tells us God's the one that closed
the door. Nobody didn't close the door. One of these days,
the door's gonna close, isn't it? This isn't a message of fear. This is a message of hope. Lord,
put me in the ark before you close the door. Don't let me
think that I've got everything figured out by myself and the
works that I produce, eating, drinking, marrying, giving in
marriage. Don't let me go about my life never seeing Christ.
Give me faith. that makes me look to him. Give me Christ lest I die. Don't
let me look for any other sign. Let me see Christ. Then Paul calls here in our text,
he calls to their memory. Let's read verse five through
12. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you
these things. And now you know what withholdeth
that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of
iniquity doth already work, only he who now letteth will let until
he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be
revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, shall destroy with the brightness of his coming, even
him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power
and signs and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish. because they receive not the
love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause,
because they receive not the love of the truth that they might
be saved, for this cause God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie that they all might be damned
who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. I've told you the title already,
but I want to tell it to you again. I'm talking to you about
the sign of the times and I want to take my time on this as best
I can and the Lord be my help. Pray for me. The Lord calls me
to say this clearly. Men use the term antichrist very
flippantly and they have made it to sound like there's one
antichrist that's going to do this and there's one antichrist
that's going to do that. The spirit of antichrist has
always been on the face of the earth. There is many, many antichrists,
many, not just one man, not just one man from the very beginning.
From the very beginning in the garden, you see the spirit of
Antichrist was Eve wanting to be God. That's the spirit of
Antichrist. I don't need Christ. I don't
need God. I'm gonna make a choice. I'm gonna take this fruit. That's
the first time we see Antichrist spirit. Antichrist has always
been on the earth. Don't misunderstand. It's that
his spirit is literally anything that is Antichrist. It's that simple. It's that simple. Anything that takes the glory
from the finished work of Christ is by definition anti-Christ. Anything that gets glory for
self is anti-Christ. Everything pertaining to the
nature of man. You know this to be true. Everything
pertaining to the nature of man is antichrist. Probably never
heard that before, have we? Everything pertaining to the
nature of man is antichrist. We are by nature antichrist. We are. We would never choose
the Lord. Everything about the flesh is
enmity against God. We'd never come to him. That's
what he told, he said, you would not come to me that you may have
everlasting life. Why? Because our flesh is antichrist. Everything about Satan is anti-Christ. Everything about the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life, everything
about the world is anti-Christ. That's why the Lord said, love
not the world, neither the things in the world. He that loveth
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You and I have
been given knowledge to know that the things of the world
are anti-Christ. Most don't see it this way. Most
see it as there's a super being called the Antichrist and he
is one individual entity. But it's not. The Antichrist
spirit and person is anything that speaks contrary to the Lord's
gospel. Anything that speaks contrary
to the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. Anything that
adds to or takes away from him is Antichrist. One Antichrist without a doubt,
and I don't hesitate to say this, would be the Pope. Pope's an
Antichrist, there's no doubt about it. Catholicism's Antichrist.
I'm not just picking on Catholics, though. I can say Pentecostals
are, Baptists are, we can go down the whole list. Anything
that takes away from Christ, that draws attention to self,
is Antichrist, make no mistake about it. Every so-called preacher that
does not declare Christ is all. Every so-called preacher that
does not declare Christ is all is anti-Christ. Most people add
to or take away from the finished work of the Lord rather than
looking to him, and that is anti-Christ. The only way we look to Him,
and you know this to be true, the only way we look to Him is
if God has made unto us the Lord Jesus Christ all our wisdom.
I don't need to know anything but Him. All our righteousness,
I have none in myself. All of our sanctification, there's
nothing holy about me. He has to be Him, His holiness
imputed. All our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. We've been redeemed by His blood
alone. If He's made us that, that's not antichrist. That's
looking unto Christ. That's our hope, isn't it? That's
our hope. If we're looking for another
sign for anything, if we're looking to signs of the world, signs
of the times, people talk about, well, that's a sign of the time,
and that's what I'm preaching on this morning. That's not of him. That's saying, well, he's not
enough. I have to see something else other than him. Look to
Christ. Don't look around. That's what
happened to Peter. And Peter began to sink. That's
when we sink. Every time is when we look around. If we're looking for another
sign, it means he's not enough. That's why so many, they're looking
for an arousal of prophecy, something new, something they've never
heard before. Tickle my ears and make me feel something energetic
and wow, I've never heard that. We've got nothing new to tell
anybody. Christ is all, and He's always
been all, and He is the sign that we want to see. It's His
glorious resurrection alone, the sign of the times, has not
changed. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. He changeth not. He's the sign
that I've got to see and that you've got to see. Men won't. An arousal of prophecy
to declare possible future events. There is no prophets. There is
no longer the need for prophets. All prophets prophesied who? The Lord Jesus Christ. They told
about him. They told about him. There's
no more prophets. It ended with John the Baptist. He was the
last. Of course, Christ was the embodiment of the prophet. You
understand that. But the last prophet would have been John
the Baptist. If you want to know the future,
I can tell us the future this morning. Without a doubt, by the faith
that the Lord, I pray, has given me, I can tell you the future.
Christ is all. All that the Father giveth me,
he said, I'm not gonna lose one of them. That's the future. That's
the future. Every single person that he died
for will come to the knowledge of the truth because they've
been saved by his precious blood. That's the future. And that's
the past at the same time. He's going to call his sheep
in time. That's the future. He's going
to do that by his spirit. And he's going to come back and
get them. At the appointed time, when the last one is called according
to his purpose, I don't know when it's going to be. I don't
know the hour. No man does. But I know that
it's purpose whenever he has, when he chose to do it, when
he chooses to do it, it's going to happen in the moment of a
twinkling of the eye. Trump's gonna sound, the dead in Christ
will rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be
called up together to meet him in the air. I love this part,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord, never to be separated
from him again. Not one sheep will be lost. When Christ shed his blood, he
bought their pardon. He redeemed his people from the
curse of the law being made a curse for them. And because of that,
his people has been made the righteousness of God in him. It's God that justified his elect
by his own blood. That's why his people look to
him. That's why his people need him. I have no other argument. I have no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died and that he died for me. That's our hope, isn't
it? That he died for me. He is the sign of the times. It's all about him. It's all
about him. It's his story. The word history,
it's his story. It's all about him. He's all our righteousness before
God. That's why the believer, and you know this to be true,
we just want to hear about him. Tell me about my Isaac, Rebecca
said on that long journey back to Isaac. Four weeks she was
traveling on those camels, and you know that was the conversation.
Every chance that she got, she would look to that servant, representing
the Holy Spirit, bringing the Lord's people to him. Tell me
about Isaac one more time. Is that your, that's my confession. I believe it's yours too. Tell
me more about him. Don't tell me about how good
of a job I'm doing. Don't tell me anything about me that's good.
Tell me about him. He's the sign I want to see.
I want to hear about him again. Who else do we need to know if
our name is written in the Lamb's book of life? Who else do we
have a desire for? Just him. Christ is all. Well, the spirit of Antichrist
that is alive and well in our flesh at this moment would say,
well, what about the sign of the times? Meaning look around
you. There's wars, there's rumors of wars. That's what the scripture
talks about. In the end times, there'll be wars and rumors of
wars. What about Russia? What about China? What about
looking to Christ? What about looking to him? What
about him saying, peace, be still? Whose time is it? Who's the sign
that we're looking Who is the sign that we're looking to? We're
looking unto Him, not around us. We're not looking at who's
seated in the White House or who's not seated in the White
House. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Pray for those
who are in office, the scripture tells us. Pray the Lord would
give them grace to be able to be good overseers of this nation
that we've been given. Pray for them. Look to Christ.
Don't look to the signs around you. You'll find no hope in it.
Even back whenever the country was first founded, there's no
hope spiritually in that. No matter where you go in the
world, there is no hope when the things around you to the
believer. Christ is rest. He is the sign that we have to
seek out. He is the sign that we hope we
see. Many are looking for the signs
of the Lord's coming rather than the person himself coming. They're
not looking for his return. They're looking for the signs.
They're looking for their reward. They're looking at themselves
and what's around them. The Lord's people look to Christ and we
rest knowing that when he returns, he will collect everything that
he has purchased by his blood. He's purchased it all, hasn't
he? According to the word of the
Lord, there are no signs or prophecies yet to be fulfilled for Christ
to return. There is nothing to be done except
him to return. There's no prophecy yet to be
fulfilled. There's no sign that hasn't come
to pass. He could come right now, according
to his purpose. And we rest in that. And we hope
in that. We hope in that, that we would
be found in him. Somebody recently was asking
me, well, what about the book of Revelation? They said, what
about the prophecies in that? I want to turn, hold your place
here. Turn to the book of Revelation chapter one. Revelation chapter one, verse
one. You want to know the sign of
the times. This is it right here. The revelation of Jesus Christ. This entire book that's written,
this entire letter that was given, this entire prophecy as people
call it. And it's not based upon future
events. It's based upon a person. It's
pointing to him. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. He is the sign. He is our hope. It's not that it's, well, this
is going to happen. And then this is going to happen
in this. No, Christ is all look to him. Christ is all Christ
is all to his people. It's the revelation of Jesus
Christ. Here's the sign of the times. We are never told to look
to signs. We are never told to look for
signs. Actually, the Lord told the Pharisees, a wicked and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and no sign will be given except
that of the prophet Jonah. What's the sign of the prophet
Jonah? Three days and three nights he was in the belly of the fish.
So shall the son of man be in the heart of the earth three
days and three nights. It's talking about his glorious resurrection.
He's talking about his accomplished salvation for his people. When
the Lord saw the blood, he was satisfied and therefore resurrected
his son. If you want a sign, there's your
sign. That's the sign that the Lord
Jesus Christ was successful in redeeming his people. That's
the only sign that the Lord's people need. That's the only
sign that we look to. Don't look around, look to Christ. Rest in him. He is the sign. In closing, turn with me to 2
Timothy chapter four. I love the fact that the sign
has never changed. It's never changed. It's not.
There's nothing new. He's the same always. Now Paul's
finishing up his second letter to Timothy, and he says these
words in encouraging him. I charge thee, 2 Timothy 4.1,
I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and
his kingdom. Preach the word. Now he didn't
say talk about future events. He didn't say have meetings to
have. He didn't give none of that puffery.
He simply said preach the word. Christ is the word, isn't he?
Preach the word. Be instant, in season, out of
season. You know how you reprove, rebuke,
and exhort? You point your brother and sister to Christ. You say,
I'm a sinner and you're a sinner. I love you. Look to Christ. That's
reprove, rebuke and exhort. We never look at each other in
a condescending manner and say, I'm holier than you. I'm going
to rebuke you. No, no. The rebuke is the gospel,
isn't it? The rebuke is that I'm a worm
and no man. I'm a sinner. I need to be exhorted. Let me give me Christ. Lord,
exhort me. Let me see him. So how do we
reprove, rebuke and exhort? He tells us with all longsuffering
and doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endear sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall
heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall
turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to
fables. They'll turn away from the truth.
They won't have any need any longer of the truth. It's too
simple. It's too, it's easy to understand if you want to put
it that way. The gospel's not complicated
in and of design where you know the Lord The Father elected a
people, the Son redeemed a people, and the Spirit calls those people,
and He'll keep those people, and it's all His work. We know,
and it's that simple. But it can't be believed without
faith. It can't be believed without faith. So therefore, the ones
that are gonna turn away, they didn't want the truth to begin
with. They wanted what they wanted. They needed a sign. They needed
a fable. They needed something else to
tickle their ears. And this is what, Paul's warning
Timothy, but we don't look to fables, do we? We don't look
to false prophecies. Every prophecy from here on out
is a false prophecy. After the Lord died, every prophecy
after that is a false prophecy. It's not true. All the prophets
ended. We're not looking to future calculated
probabilities. I can start talking about futuristic
possibilities of countries rising up against other countries based
upon tension and different things like that. But where is the Lord
in that? He's still seated. He still reigneth. Look to Him.
Look to Him. Don't look at the possibilities
of this or that. Look to Christ. There is no possibilities
with God. That's of man. Man has possibilities. God is eternal, God is infinite. It's not a possibility, it's
purpose, isn't it? We look to Christ for all time
and all eternity. He is who we look to. In closing,
I wanna bring this thought, I've already said in closing when
I was turning here, but I'm letting you know I'm ending it. You know
why we're discouraged? And I'm probably going to preach
to your brethren in Iowa, if Lord be my help to do so, unless
he changes my mind on this topic. Why are we discouraged? There's
four main reasons, but we're always discouraged because we're
looking in ourself for something that can only be found in Christ,
or we're looking around us for peace that can only come through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Literally, we're discouraged
because we're not looking to Him. It sounds simple, but to not,
well, if that's the case, I'm just gonna always look to him.
I wish I could, don't you? I wish I could. But I believe
that he causes his people to, makes us mercy beggars over and
over. He gives us just enough grace. Will we rejoice in Him
and just enough trial to cause us to cry out for grace again?
He doesn't allow us to just bask in grace all the time and have
peace every second of it. I wish we could, but He's made
it so that we cry out for Him. Why are we discouraged? We're
not looking to Him. We know the sign of the times, brethren.
Don't be discouraged. The sign of the times is the
Lord Jesus Christ. In every passing second that
has been or ever will be, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
by His Father is the sign, the one and only sign that we look
to. We look to nothing else, nothing else but Him and His
finished work because it loudly declares it is finished. Everything that's purposed is
going to happen. Look to Him. In everything you
do, look to Him. Whether therefore you eat or
drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. How
do I do it unto the glory of God? Look to Christ. Don't look at the news of the
world. Look to the God that purpose all things. Rest in the fact
that there is no news to Him. News, the word new and S at the
end of it, it's something new that's came to be. There's nothing
new with God. He's from everlasting to everlasting.
Nothing changes. There's nothing in time that's
going to not happen the way that he purposed it. There's nothing
new to him. There is no such thing as news
in heaven. It's always been. It's always
been. Thank God he makes all things
new to his people by revealing Christ. My encouragement to you
at this hour would be don't look Don't look at life and be discouraged
by sin that you see in yourself or the sin that you see around
you. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, that put away
that sin, the sin of his people. He put it away, bore our curse
upon the tree. Don't look in the mirror and
examine yourself to find any goodness in you. Examine yourself
to see if there be anything except looking to Christ. And when you
find it, rid yourself of it and look unto Christ. Look to the
perfect sinless savior of his sinners. In a world looking for
signs and wonders, we really have the only one true sign from
God, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Look to Christ, look
to Christ, rest in him. We don't need anything new, do
we? No, we just need him. Can you say amen to that? Let's
pray.