Matthew 15 verse 39 says this, and he sent
away the multitude after he fed 4,000 men, 8,000 or more people. He sent away the multitude and
took ship and came into the coast of Magdala. I don't have time really to deal
with this, but this is a city that Joshua conquered and possessed
and gave it to one of the tribes of Jacob, Israel. And this is Joshua who came to
claim what was his. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
Joshua, and he came to claim one of his own to give unto her
the kingdom. Magdala. Sound familiar? Everything
is not written that he did. Mary Magdalene. Her story is
not in here of how the Lord found her. It must have been right
here. He came to this town. Magdala. That's just a little
footnote. Everything he did was in the
direction of saving his people. And then chapter 16, Pharisees
also with the Sadducees came. They came to this town knowing
that he was there, tempting, testing, desired him. In other places they demanded
of him, made demands of him that he would show them a sign from
heaven. These two groups Pharisees and
Sadducees are spoken of often in Scripture, along with the
Scribes. And they are still alive today. Many Scribes, Pharisees,
Sadducees today in religion. In religion, the world is made
up of these people. The Pharisees were strict, moral,
supposedly moral. They seemed to be in front of
everyone else. But the Lord said, you are like
whited graves. He looked on the inside. They
were separatists. They were law keepers. Legal
law keeping day, everyone thought. They appeared religious. They
loved to pray on the corner of the streets. They loved to be
seen in their religious clothing. Does that sound familiar? Pharisees
today. The Lord always called them.
Every time He referred to the Pharisees, He called them hypocrites,
meaning they're playing a part. The word means actor. They're
playing a part, doing what they do to be seen. An actor puts
on a show, doesn't he? He's not real at all. He's doing
what he's doing. to be seen and applauded by men
and women. That's what the Lord said of
Pharisees. John called them vipers, didn't
he? Full of poison. And our Lord
said to His disciples so many times, beware. Beware. Don't fall for the leaven of
the Pharisees. Beware. Sadducees. Sadducees
got their beliefs from a man named Sadduk, Sadduk, Sadducees,
followers of a man. And how many do that today in
religion? How many go under the names of
men? The names of men. Lutheran. Can you imagine what
Martin Luther would do if he knew that people were using his
name to name the church? Can you imagine? They were intellectuals,
the Sadducees. They all came to see, to hear
Jesus as they come today. And it says they came tempting
Him, testing Him, trying Him, listening to Him not to learn
from Him, not to glean from Him, not to sit at His feet as a disciple,
as a student, as a learner, as a child. He said, you should.
but to critique him, to try to catch him at his word, to try
to find something wrong with what he said. And so they said unto him, Show
us a sign from heaven. Show us a sign. Prove yourself. God will not prove himself to
man. does not give an account of his
matters to man, that the fact of the matter is, no matter how
many signs, and both messages today are taken from just these
four verses, that no matter how many signs God does clearly show,
no matter what he does, what men see or what they hear from
him, his They will not believe. Why? Because man is blind. Man
is deaf. And such were some of you, but
God. God will not prove Himself. Here's
the thing. God gives first faith, supernatural,
miraculous faith to believe Him, to receive His Word. No man will
receive Him except born of God. To those that receive Him, Oh,
he's given them many infallible proofs, hasn't he? He said to
his disciples, if you believe, you'll see the glory of God. But he must give us faith first.
Show us a sign. We'll believe you. And he answered
them, verse 2 and 3. He answered and said unto them,
when it is evening, ye say it will be fair weather, for the
sky is red, and in the morning It will be foul weather today,
for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, you can discern
the face of the sky. Can you not discern the signs
of the times?" The signs of the times, that's the theme of this
study. The signs of the times. Can you
not discern the signs of the times? It was an old saying,
and it still is an old saying of ancient mariners, red sky
at night, sailors delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take
warning. The sky was red at night, there
will be fair weather tomorrow. If the sky is red in the morning,
there is going to be a storm coming. Where did they get that?
Right here, as men do every day. thing that has any truth to it,
any credence to it at all. If there's anything credible,
any old saying that continues, you got it from God. Though they
don't give Him credit. But in God's creative purpose,
that's the way He made things. Why? For sailors. In His goodness,
in His mercy, in His kindness, long before modern technology.
before men could, well, before they thought they could predict
the weather. I love how weather men are wrong
so often. You know, their scientific way
of telling us things is 10% chance of rain. Well, I can say that. The chance of rain, of course.
But they don't know. Why? The wind. You can't predict
the wind. That's in God's purpose. But
God did this in goodness to the mariners. That was the way of
transportation back then. And God showed them clearly a
sign from the sky. Watch out. Don't sail today. But our Lord is saying here to
these hypocrites, who seeking a sign from heaven. He said,
if you can discern those signs, you can read the sky, but you
cannot clearly see the signs of the times, things that should be clearly
seen. You have eyes, but you must not
see. Ears, but you must not hear his
voice. Where were we? I was somewhere
and it thundered. Oh, the thunder rolled so deep
and so mysterious and so terrible and frightening. And I'm sure
most people don't give that a thought. I did. You know what I knew? God spoke. Well, yeah. What did He say? I have glorified
it and will glorify it again. Christ His name. Is that what
you think when you see the clouds? What is that? The dust of His
feet. And on and on it goes. The heavens
declare His glory. The firmament show of His handiwork. Day and night utter speech. The sun, the moon, the stars.
Most don't believe creation. Most certainly don't believe
in a Paul. I was reading a book, I was looking
up sermons by various men on, I think it was this, yeah, this
passage. I began to read an old leather-bound
book by a man I wasn't very acquainted with. And one of the first things
I saw in his comments were that he did not believe that man got
his guilt or sin from Adam. So I took that old leather-bound
volume that was probably worth something, at least in a historical
sense, and threw it in the trash can. I don't want to hear anything
more that the man has to say. Spurgeon used to say, if you're
wrong on the fall, you're wrong on it all. That's the problem
with religion today. What happened in the garden?
What happened to the man in the garden? Did he die? Or did he
just get sick? If he's dead, what does that
mean? Salvation is of the Lord. Well,
most don't believe in the fall. Most, the vast majority, do not
believe in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
a fact. Most don't believe in God as
God. Don't believe in Christ. They
believe in man. This is what most people believe.
They believe in man. I heard a man interviewing some
physicists and biologists and young, the next scientists that
are coming up. They were at Stanford University
and he was interviewing them, talking to them, asking them
a question about evolution, Darwin's theory, a question they could
not answer. Because there was no proof of
this thing that Darwin insisted upon. It completely and completely
destroys his whole theory. But they couldn't answer it.
So their comment was, and so the fellow was saying, so you're
believing what you believe on faith, not facts. And they all
had to say, they all had to admit, well, yes. And two or three of
them actually said, We trust science. We trust in scientists. They won't trust God. What a fool. You can discern
the face of the sky, but cannot discern the times. All right? Can you, can we, discern the
times? The times leading up to Christ's
first coming were clearly shown. They said they were looking for
Him. The Pharisees and the Sadducees said they were looking for Christ
to come. And the whole Old Testament from
Genesis to Malachi is full of incredible, that's not the word,
full of amazing signs, symbols, types, shadows, pictures, And
even the creation, everything in it pointed to this coming
one, the coming Christ. And when He came, they didn't
know Him. They didn't see Him. They weren't
really looking for Him. They didn't know. They didn't
believe Him when He came. And men and women don't discern
the times now that are leading up to His second coming. And we've read together in 2
Peter 3 Peter said, beloved, don't you be ignorant of these
times. He said, in the last day, the last day, end times, there
will be scoffers and mockers walking after their own lusts
for their own evil purposes for money, money, money, money, saying,
where's the promise of His coming? All things continue as they were.
This they're ignorant of, that the world standing out of the
water, the world was Flooded, and the world was created and
flooded in judgment. Christ is coming. They said they're
willingly ignorant. They said they're willingly ignorant.
Holding the truth, seeing clearly in the creation. Holding the
truth, seeing clearly in this book. Suppressing it. Holding
it down. Why? Man doesn't want to believe
in God. Man doesn't want a God. Man not
only says there is no God, but says, I don't want a God. I don't
want to judge. I will not have this man reign
over me. What about you? I want this man to reign over
me. I am so glad God is. I want God to be God. I am so
thankful. Why? If you feel that way, why? Because God had from the beginning
chosen you through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of glory. We can discern the times. What
is it that enables us to discern the time? Well, the heavens declare
his glory. Yes, the firmament showeth his
handiwork. Day under day. uttered speech, oh my, the sun
comes up. All these things that clearly
show those whom God has given eyes to see clearly show Him,
God. We see the hand of God in everything.
We see the glory of God in everything. We see our marvelous Creator
in everything. Why do we see that? Because He
has given us eyes. But the thing that shows us more
than anything, and I've been quoting Psalm 19, is God wrote
a book. God wrote a book. God's Word. The entrance of thy Word giveth
light. Understand that. You cannot see
without light. If there's no light, you're in
darkness. You can't see anything. The entrance of thy Word giveth
light. Oh, bless God, who caused the
light to shine out of darkness. He had shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face,
the person, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, I want you to just
read some Scripture with me, okay? God's Word. God's Word. 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy. That's
pretty much what we're going to do to conclude this message,
is read God's Word. And the best advice I could give,
counsel I could give you next to hearing the Word preached,
read it. I mean read it. Read it and read it and read
it again. Keep reading it. Read it. Read
it. Read it. Read it. And ask the
Lord. And read it carefully. And read
it prayerfully. Because if the Lord doesn't open
it to you, you won't understand. If the Lord doesn't speak to
you through that Word, it's just going to be facts. It's just
going to be a written Word. It's just going to be a book
like any other. But if He speaks to you, say,
Lord, speak to me. Reveal Yourself to me. Reveal
Christ to me. Look for Christ in me. Because
what's this all about? that we might know Him. Faith
is to know Him, the true God in Jesus Christ. First, Timothy. Alright, Paul told this young...
he's writing to a young preacher named Timothy, and he's really
writing to all his disciples. But he tells him, he warns him,
don't give heed to fables. Don't listen to fables. Endless
genealogy. He said, avoid oppositions of
science falsely so-called. Avoid oppositions of science
falsely so-called. Science means the study of truth,
basically. The way things are. Falsely so-called. Because they hold the truth down.
They suppress the truth. They make up things. Make up
things. Imagine things. Science does
that. Suppress the truth. But he tells
Timothy, and he tells me, don't spend time on that. Don't answer,
don't strive with part church. There's no need in that. Just
preach the truth. Now, I don't make it clear. So
we don't try to intellectually strive with and convince people
that God is. No, it doesn't do it. if God reveals
Himself to you. 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, the Spirit
speaketh very plainly, expressly, in the latter times, some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and
doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, actors, having
their conscience seared with a hot iron, that is, rejecting
everything God says is wrong, forbidding to marry, That's Roman
Catholicism. Seducing spirits, that's preachers. Doctrines of devils, what's that?
What's doctrines of devil? What did the devil say to the
first man and woman on this earth? He cast doubt on God's Word,
didn't he? The first thing he did was cast
a doubt upon God's Word, and then he flat denied it. And the
first thing he said was, hath God said you shall not eat? And
Eve added to it. And then he said to Eve, he flat
denied her, you won't die. You're not dead. God loves you.
And who does he think he is anyway to withhold? You have free will.
You're like God. How can he withhold that from
you? Doctrines of devils. Free will
is a doctrine of devils. that God loves everyone and has
a wonderful plan for your life is the doctrine of devils. And that's the prevailing doctrine
today. That's it. 2 Timothy 3. Go over there. 2 Timothy 3. You
know these verses, but you know where they are. And you read
them, quote them to people. This is our answer to this evil
generation. Verse 1. This know also that
in the last days perilous time, dangerous time, shall come. Men
shall be lovers of their own selves. And you'll see, you know
how these verses describe this time as clearly as any that has
ever been. Lovers of their own selves. They're
magazines. Was everybody taking pictures
of his daddy? Themselves. Really not funny. Covetous. Can't get enough. Boasters. Proud. Blasphemers. Oh my God. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Romans 1. They weren't thankful
to God or anybody else. Unholy. That means opposite of
God in every way. Without natural affection. Men with men and women with women. Read on. Truce breakers. Huh, you remember a man's word
mean anything? Nothing. False accusers, slanderers,
gossipers. Incontinent, cannot hold in their
passions and are right proud of it. Fierce, violent. Despisers
of those that are good. Traitor. Pity. High-minded, lovers
of pleasure more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness,
religious, but it's just a form. It's just a show. Denying the
power thereof. Their lives deny it. From such
turn away. Ever learning, verse 7, never
able to come to a knowledge of the truth. They'll proceed, verse
9, no further, their father shall be manifest. Verse 13, evil men
and seducers wax worse than words, deceiving, being deceived. Go
with me to, we'll look at chapter 4 here, 2 Timothy 4, verse 2. Preach the word, Timothy. Be
instant, always doing it, in season, out of season. Reprove,
rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering. and doctrine. The time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine. What's sound doctrine?
Scripture. We'll have it. But after their
own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching
ears. They'll turn away their ears
from the truth and turn unto fables. First Thessalonians. Let's go
back there. First Thessalonians. Very quickly. We're just reading
God's Word. Oh, how we need to read it more
and more and more, so much more as we see the day approaching.
Can you not discern the times? These are the last days. The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air. So shall we ever be with the
Lord." Comfort one another with these words. The world doesn't
believe that. Oh, we do, don't we? What are
we doing here? Waiting on the Lord. Waiting
on our Lord to come back. He said, go before me in the
Galilee and wait. I'm coming. Did He? Yes, He did.
He said, you assemble together and you wait. You worship Me.
You pray unto Me. You sing My praises. You come
where My people are. And you just wait. You'll see.
I'm coming. Comfort one another with these
words. Read on. Of the times and seasons, brethren,
you have no need. I write unto you. Why is that?
You know perfectly. You know. See, and you know these
things before, that the day of the Lord, the actual day and
hour knoweth no man but the Lord Himself. But you can see the
times, can't you? Can you see the times? Somebody
get excited with me here. The Lord is near. Can you see
it? The clouds are the dust of His
feet. He's at the door. The times are bad, aren't they?
They've never been worse. Evil times. Perilous times. It
makes us sad. It makes us grieve. It also ought
to make us happy. This world has gone to pot. Why? Because God's given it over in
Romans 1 to a reprobate mind. But not us. Praise be unto God. He's given us a sound mind. We're
not asleep as others. We're not in darkness as others. And the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead in Christ shall rise. Anybody believe that? I
do. Why? Because God has chosen me. One more, okay? Can you read
one more with us? I was going to read lots of verses,
but 2 Thessalonians 2, I was going to read this whole chapter.
That's what I get for talking a little bit about evolution.
This is more worth the time, isn't it? If I just stood up
and read, wouldn't that be worth the time spent? Are you with me? 2 Timothy 2, Brethren, we
beseech you by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, by our
gathering together under him, 2 Thessalonians 2, that you be
not soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or
by letters from us. That as the day of Christ is
at hand, let no man deceive you by any means. That day shall
not come except there be a falling away for and the man of sin be
revealed. And he went on down to say the
wicked one who sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself
that he is God. This was written 2000 years ago.
And Paul was telling the people back then, don't be troubled,
no, much must happen before Christ comes. And the spirit of antichrist
will come. It's not one man. It's a spirit
of antichrist. And John said even now there
are many antichrists. Even then, back in the first
century. There will be a falling away first. From what? The truth. The truth. The truth has been
preached for 2,000 years now. With dark ages, 400 years of
light, and then a dark age, 1,000 years, and Martin Luther was
raised up, and all these men were raised up, and Moxon, Luther,
and Calvin, and on and on it went. The light was shown again,
and the latter harvest, the last days, the latter harvests are
fewer than they were in the beginning, but the last days, Times spoken
by Joel and the Spirit of Antichrist. Can
you think of anybody who sits in the temple? There is no temple.
Well, where's this fellow sitting? As God, pardoning sin and conferring
heavenly blessings. Who's that? Millions the world
over are calling him Papa, Father, Holy Father. Can you discern
the time? Can you see the time? This is
it. This is it. All our forefathers
were telling us about this. And now it's come to full-blown
fruition. Oh, so that's why he says, well,
look at verse 10. And they are deceived with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness, and them that perish because
they receive not the love of the truth that might be saved.
And so God sends strong delusion. And they believe a lie and are
damned for it. But we are bound. Why do we every time stand up
and bless God for electing and choosing the people? Because
we love the doctrine of election? No, because we thank God that
He chose some people to make known the truth to them and didn't
leave them in outer darkness as so many have. Everybody deserves
to be left alone, unthankful, unholy. Don't give God a thought
but God. It says, comfort your heart.
These are the last days. This world is a perilous time
we live in. We're frightened for our children. We're sick. We're grieved like a lot for
our children, our sons, our daughters live in it, going out there in
it. We're worried for them that if the Lord doesn't reveal Himself
to them and keep them from it, they're going to perish with
it. But God must still have some
sheep or this Gospel wouldn't be preached today. And you're
hearing it. And your sons and daughters are
hearing it this morning. Some of you have your sons and
daughters with you. I'm holding out hope. I'm holding out hope. They've got to hear this. Man's
a liar. And if you stay in the world,
you'll perish with us. Come ye up from among them. God
says, I'll be your God. You'll be my people. When I come
back with my people, Joe and Ellen and Becky and all of them,
come back with His people in the air, He'll bring His people
out of there. Come quickly, Lord. Come quickly.
Okay.