Are We In The Last Days?

Carter Conlon from the historic Times Square Church in New York City. Changing at an incredible pace, many Christians are asking, are we living in the last days? As Carter will point out in today's message, you should not be afraid because God is in control and he has a special purpose for you during these troubled times. Let's join Carter now as he takes us to 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5 for more. As we've been traveling recently, we've come across a lot of people who have a question in their heart.

I think it's a question that people here would be sharing and probably a lot of folks that are online are thinking the same things that we are. The question is, are we in the last days? Are these the days just before the return of Jesus Christ? If they are, there must be a witness not only in the current events of our day or the very social climate we're now living in, but there has to be a witness in Scripture too as well of the time that we're now living in. And so I want to take a look at some of these Scriptures.

I'm not going to really comment too much on them. I want to read about it and then I want to finish with one of the final signs of the last days that should bring gladness and joy into your heart. And I'm trusting and believing with everything in me that for many that will cause you to rise up and to become the person that God has destined your life to be. So Father, we want to just say thank you God for your word which indeed is a lamp for our feet and a guide for our path. Thank you God that the entrance of your words does bring light. Thank you Lord Jesus Christ that it's by your word that we are guided, we are admonished, we are cleansed, we are instructed God, we are led into this incredible promise and life that is promised to us through Jesus Christ. In spite of all the darkness, my God, give us back our children, Lord we pray, give us back our homes, our marriages, Lord Jesus Christ before you come, let there be something that brings glory to your name, a shout of glory in the earth. For those who can still hear, Lord we just ask God that you would speak to those that you are calling to yourself at this time and we thank you for it in Jesus' name.

Amen. So we're going to start at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 where the Apostle Paul writes about the time and the season of Christ's return because in the previous chapter he talks about the Lord descending from heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trumpet of God, the dead in Christ rising first and we who are alive and remain be caught up together with them in the clouds. We've come to know this doctrine as the rapture of the church, this sudden and it should be an unexpected moment in history when the Lord himself comes and gathers his people from the earth before the final judgments of God begin to be released among the people that remain on this earth. And beginning of chapter 5 and verse 1 Paul says, but concerning the times and seasons brethren you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say peace and safety, so that means there's going to be every effort I suppose that humanity can produce to bring about peace in the world, then sudden destruction shall come upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman and they shall not escape. In other words, there's going to be something come into the world, a calamity upon calamity that is inescapable.

There's nothing of human effort that can stop this from happening, just as when a woman is about to give delivery to a baby, she can will if she wants not to have that child, but there's nothing she can do to stop this delivery. But you brethren, verse 4, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all sons of light and sons of the day, you're not of the night nor of darkness. For let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brethren, you are not in darkness so this day should overtake you as a thief. So in other words, according to the Scriptures, there is this interior witness that will be given by the Spirit of God to the true bride of Christ when we are living in these last days, when we're living at the time and the season just before this outbreak of lawlessness in the world and the sudden return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me read to you, I'm not going to try to add anything to this, but there's a commentary from the Full Life Study Bible on this particular passage of Scripture and let me just read it to you. Both Jesus and Paul paint a dismal picture morally, spiritually, and doctrinally as the present age closes. Paul in particular stresses that the churches will be invaded by godless elements in the last days.

The falling away within the church will have two dimensions. Theological apostasy is the departure from and rejection of a part or all of the original teachings of Christ and the apostles. False teachers will offer salvation and cheap grace while ignoring Christ's demand for repentance, separation from immorality, and loyalty to God and his standards.

False hope that centers on human activity and goals of self-interest will become popular. Moral apostasy is the severing of one's saving relationship with Christ and returning to sin and immorality. Some leaders may proclaim right doctrine yet abandon God's moral law and standards of righteousness and thereby corrupt the truth and loose deception.

Many churches will tolerate almost anything for the sake of numbers, money, success, and honor. The gospel of the cross with its call to suffer, to radically renounce sin, and to sacrifice for God's kingdom and to deny oneself will become unpopular. Both church history and the predicted falling away at the end time warns believers not to be naive about widespread corruption of the gospel. At some point in church history, rebellion against God and his word will reach astounding proportions. This is what I began to hear from pastors all over Europe in particular and those who are visiting Europe, that there's actually a surprise at the suddenness with which there's a revulsion against truth and especially against biblical truth, where society is now spiraling.

It's almost like we're circling the drain, especially in the Western world, and we're going down farther and deeper into foolishness, into immorality, and we are so confused as a society and becoming very intolerant of everyone that holds to biblical truth. Now, Jesus addressed this in some measure in Matthew chapter 24 when his disciples came to him and they said, tell us, when shall these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So tell us, when are these things going to happen?

When you're going to return and this world as we know it is going to come to an end. Jesus talks about, firstly, deception. There'll be all kinds of religious deception loosed in the earth. There'll be false messiahs, there'll be false preachers who will be saying to the people, I am Christ.

In other words, if you're looking at my life, you're looking at what a life governed by the word of God and the Holy Spirit looks like, but they will be false. They will not be true. There will be wars and rumors of wars. We're living at a time now with the obvious conflict going on in Ukraine and the potential for it to increase far beyond those borders and even farther into the world. On top of this, we're now looking at a renewed conflict, potentially, between the United States and Russia and China as well if they invade Taiwan, which it appears they're going to do in the not too distant future. So we're looking at wars in the world. We're looking at rumors of wars.

He said, don't be troubled by these things. They must come to pass, but the end is not yet. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines. We're now talking about famine. Twenty-three percent of the world's wheat is produced in the Ukraine, and the Ukrainian government are saying to us now they can't get their wheat.

First of all, they're having difficulty harvesting it, and the wheat that they can harvest, the porks have been blocked by Russia, so they can't get the wheat out. They say it's going to produce hunger hardship all over the world, and particularly Africa, which will be hit hard by famine because of the inability to get the crops out to market. There will be pestilences. That means new diseases. We have COVID-19. Now we have the variants of COVID-19.

Now the monkey poxin. Who knows what's coming after all of this? And earthquakes or disturbances in the earth in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrows, and they will be followed up at this particular portion of time that Jesus is talking about in Matthew 24 by all nations beginning to hate the people of God to the point of even in some places putting them to death because of the name and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And there is, in fact, this sudden Jesus revulsion. David Wilkerson prophesied about it in one of his books. He said there'd be a sudden Jesus revulsion, hit the whole world, and there'd be an intolerance for those who hold to maybe a biblical worldview about sexuality or about maleness and femaleness and marriage between a man and a woman. There'd be sudden and other such things. There'd be a sudden intolerance, and truth will become, we will become haters because we hold to truth. And this is spreading all over much of the world today.

This is on an extremely rapid basis, might I add, this is all starting to happen. Now, let me just fast forward to Paul in 2 Timothy 3. He says, know this, verse 1, in the last days, perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. We think of this young shooter in Texas recently who began his rageful, you know, things that he did by shooting his grandmother in the face, something almost unthinkable, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despises of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying his power. And the question I started out by asking, are we living in the last days?

My answer is yes, we are. How long is it going to be until Christ returns? I don't know. How long are the last days? It could be 10 more days, it could be 10 more years, it could be 10 times 10 more years.

I really don't know. But the Bible does say we're not children of darkness. These days should not overtake us as a thief. We should be aware of the times that we're living in. We should be diligent to be walking in a righteous way with God and leading as many people as we can to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Remember the scripture that I opened with where Paul the Apostle says these words, he says, but you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief.

We ought to know the day we're living in. We ought to see the signs everywhere and it should cause us, cause a cry in our hearts say God have mercy on this generation, have mercy on our marriages, our homes, our families, our children, have mercy on even the evil in our midst, God. We're not looking or rejoicing in the judgment of anyone. Christ himself made it very clear that he didn't come to condemn, he came to forgive. And we're ambassadors of that forgiveness. But most of all, God did not appoint us to wrath but obtained salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so I want to encourage you not to be afraid of the days that we're living in, especially those that are out there now and you're hearing all these things and the tendency is to want to just shut off all the news and just stick our heads in the sand and pretend it's all going to go away. But we don't have to do that because God's not given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us power, he's given us love, he's given us a sound mind. We know these things have to come, but God has given us the power of his Holy Spirit to cause us to stand. He's given us a love for all people that casts out the fear of man, that casts out the fear of the moment that we're now living in.

And we have a reason to live because our reason for being on the earth is to testify about the Christ who came to a cross, died for the sins of all people and promises eternal life to everyone who turns to him. But there's another sign in the last days, there's another last day sign that I'm now looking for with all of my heart. And I saw a little bit of this.

I want to share that with you when I was in Warsaw. And here it is. It's the day of Pentecost. Peter steps out with the disciples out of the upper room and in among the crowd of people. And he starts with these words when he preaches this first and famous sermon after the baptism of the Holy Spirit has come. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, Acts chapter two, beginning at verse 16.

"'It shall come to pass in the last days,' says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." In other words, your sons and daughters will start speaking in alignment with God.

That's what it means. They will understand the ways of God and they will begin to speak the things of God and they will begin to agree with God and begin to walk with God. And they start moving and living in the power of God. And they're not speaking the things of this life. They're not wringing their hands saying, oh, what must we do?

They actually understand the future. They understand the promises of God and they begin to speak in alignment with the promises of God. Oh, hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Not terrified by our adversaries, not terrified by the hatred that's being unleashed on this world, but understanding it was foretold.

There is no escaping it in the natural, but there is not just an escaping, but experiencing a victory over it in the power of Christ that's alive in each one of our lives. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall see visions. In other words, your older men are not living in the past, talking about the past, but we have a vision for the future.

We see something for our families and for our children. We've come to know the power of God and we're speaking about the power of God to the next generation. We're speaking about what God has for the future. Your old men are not sitting in a rocking chair talking about yesterday. Your old men are talking about tomorrow. God put something inside of us. As the Psalmist once said, the ancient Psalmist said, God, don't take your hand off me until I've shown your power to this next generation that is to come.

Not just talked about it, but shown it to them until they've seen it alive in me. God, don't take your hand from me until the children can see who you are and what you do and the power you have available for those that are called into your kingdom. On my men's servants and maid's servants, I will pour out of my spirit in those... In other words, there's no distinction. It's a whosoever will moment on the earth in the last days. Young, old, rich, poor, educated, uneducated, makes no difference.

Big job, little job, no job, makes no difference. God says, I will pour out my spirit and all flesh they will prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven, signs in the earth beneath, blood, fire, vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. One more sign. I'm believing for that with all my heart. I'm believing for an end time spiritual awakening. Let me tell you a story. I got to see a raindrop of this thunderstorm when I was in Warsaw. We had the opportunity to go and to speak at an all-day conference for pastors and Christian workers who've been giving out to these refugees and refugee centers and feeding and housing and clothing and everything else, and they're exhausted.

It's been four months and they're very, very tired. There was a young girl from Mariupol. Now, Mariupol is a small city in the Ukraine that's been bombed out of existence, and it just literally doesn't exist anymore.

It was virtually destroyed in whatever ways they chose to do that. But this young girl has had nothing but a life of heartache. She lost her mother. She lost her two brothers. Her father lost his mind. And she found herself after going through all of this, getting on a bus, not knowing where she's going, ending up in Warsaw. I don't know if it was a Christian home or Christian family that took her in, but I do know she ended up at the pastors' conference.

No one knows how, but she ended up in the conference, didn't speak a word of English. Partway through the very first service, sitting in... She's never been in church her whole life, never, not even one time, doesn't know anything about God. She's 22 years old.

She's sitting in the service. She's suffered incalculable heartache. She's an orphan. She's all alone. She's lost everything. She has every reason to be bitter, don't you think?

Every reason to lose hope in life. And as she's sitting there, suddenly the Holy Spirit falls upon her. She told us after through a translator, she said, the hair on her arm stood up.

She said, the hair on the back of my neck went straight out. She said, I didn't know what was happening, but this power came upon me. And she said, I heard a voice. And the voice said to me, from this day forward, you are mine. Isn't that something?

From this day forward. And she came and she latched onto me and she was crying so hard, she could hardly talk. And she said to us, her translator, I heard the voice of God today.

Isn't that amazing? Not even knowing if there was a God, she heard the voice of God. Without hearing the gospel, I was just there encouraging the pastors and she suddenly heard the voice of God.

What did he say? From this day forward, you are mine. What does the scripture say? When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up. Praise be to God. Not only did she find Christ that day, but she's now in Bible school. We arranged to get her in Bible school where she's learning English. And once she knows enough English, we're bringing her here to Pennsylvania.

She's going to attend our Bible school at Summit International School of Ministry. Praise be to God. That's how God works, coming in, not knowing the Lord, to being in Bible school the next day. Only God could do that. Oh God, before she even has opened the book of the Bible, she's in Bible school, learning English and learning the word of God. Only God could do that.

But that's what the scripture says. In the last days, I'll pour out my spirit, every hungry heart, everyone who maybe has very little, if any, knowledge of God, but just has an open heart. I don't know what preceded that moment other than just, could it be real?

Is it possible there is a God? And suddenly God comes and confirms his presence, his willingness. It's almost like the upper room revisited again, where the Holy Spirit falls on this young girl who has not known anything but heartache her whole life.

And he speaks to her and says, from this moment on, you are mine. I'm believing that's going to happen with our children. The Lord is able to go into our schools. Maybe some of us are locked out, but God is omnipresent.

That means he's not locked out of our schools and our classrooms. And my prayer is that God, suddenly you just visit the children and no matter who's trying to shut everything down, you just say, from this moment on, you are mine. And start to speak to the children, speak to our high schoolers, speak in our colleges, speak in our homes, speak to our marriages. See this to me is the sign that I'm looking for in the last days. I know wars are going to come and I know famines are going to be here and I know that we've already had a two year shutdown and heaven knows what's going to happen in the future. But I'm not looking to any of these for the future.

This is not my concern. I'm looking for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this generation. I'm looking for an end time harvest that's going to be greater than anything that's ever preceded it in the history of the world. It shall come to pass in the last days. That's what God said. That's what Joel prophesied. That's what Peter said. And according to Peter, as he saw it, it was happening.

It began on the day of Pentecost and I believe with all my heart, David Wilkerson believed it too as well, there is going to be an end time harvest that's going to stagger every harvest that has ever hit this world. It doesn't mean that countries are going to be redeemed. It doesn't mean that lawlessness is suddenly going to be abated. It means that everyone who still wants to hear is going to hear. It means when the trumpet of God sounds, there's going to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of millions of people gathered together to be with the Lord forever.

It means that the mercy of God is going to be poured out one last time on this world before the Lord Jesus returns. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to God. That is my hope. That is my life.

That is my purpose. I want to see this, what happened to this girl repeated a hundred thousand times in the next few years, the next few days even. God himself only knows how this is going to happen. We don't have to figure it out, but we do have to look forward to it and do walk in it. And that brings me to my final point for those that are listening, what are your last days going to look like?

You can make your choice. This little girl could have just got up and walked out and her life could have gone back to sorrow and despair. And that could be her testimony for the rest of her days on the earth.

And then tragically, she would stand before God one day and find out that she had an opportunity to be redeemed, an opportunity to become a daughter of God, an opportunity to begin to speak the way God speaks and have a brand new life cleansed from sin and empowered by the Holy Spirit, but turned it down. The question is, what are you going to do? What are your last days going to be like? Are you going to be wringing your hands and reading in the news every day about wars and famines and fretting and fussing and wondering how you're going to preserve yourself and your future? Are you going to bow down and start compromising to the godlessness of this present time that we're now living in? Or will you stand in the strength of God? Will you let God become your God? Will you let the Holy Spirit become the power of God within you to cause you to stand and be the person that God has destined your life to be?

The choice is yours. God will not force you. He will touch your life and show you that he's real, but the choice is left to you as to whether or not you will respond to the kindness of God and allow the Holy Spirit to come into your life. The Lord is willing to do for you what only God can do. All you have to do is admit that you need a savior.

Just don't make it complicated. Jesus Christ came to this earth 2000 years ago, walked among us for 33 years, went to a cross, suffered horribly to pay the price for every wrong thing that you have ever done so that believing in him, you might be free from the, the Bible calls it sin. It means everything you've done against the ways of God that you might be free and he's willing to give it to you as a gift. If you will admit you need a savior, believe that Christ took your place and then confess with your mouth, Jesus Christ is Lord.

Keep it simple. You've been listening to Carter Conlon from Times Square Church in New York City. For more information and resources to help you in your walk in Christ, log onto tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. And be sure to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.