I want to speak to you about your struggle in the last days, because we still have a bit of a journey to take. And according to the Scriptures, Satan is going to throw against this world everything in his arsenal that he has. Then Jesus tells them that those living in that time should not be deceived. There will be a great falling away. There will be great suffering, persecution, and betrayal. And truth and Godly love will begin to fade away. Well now, we're seeing all this taking place in today's world. But there is wonderful hope for the followers of Jesus Christ.
Here's Carter with more. I want to start in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, in verse 3. The disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will deceive many. So, one of the first signs that we're in this season that Jesus Christ spoke about of the end of this world as we know it, is that there will be an unleashing of deception in the world. There will be people rise up telling us that they're speaking for God. There will be people rise up and say, Hey, if you're looking at me or looking at the Spirit of God within me, they'll claim to speak for God. And of course, some will claim even to be the Messiah. We'll even go that far. Those ones are not too hard to discern.
The other ones might be a little more difficult. So there'll be this unleashing of deception all throughout this world as we know it. Verse 11 and verse 12 says, Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Many voices will be raised up, saying, This is the way, walk in it, but it won't be the way of truth. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. There will be a coldness come into the hearts of many of God's people. There'll be an encroachment of coldness. There'll be a temptation to grow cold to the love of God himself, the love of God's word, the love of the work of God, which is the salvation of the lost. There'll be this indifference, tries to get into the hearts of God's people.
Perhaps it'll be self-focused. I'm just going to draw back. I'm going to prepare for myself. I'm going to preserve myself.
I don't care about the rest of this world. Let them parade their sin in the streets. Let them smash and loot and grab and argue and lie and do all the things they want to do, forgetting that Christ died for these people. And there'll be a tendency in all of us. There'll be a temptation in all of us to draw back from the work of God because it will be so violent and so vile. And that's what it's getting like today. I am convinced personally, you can disagree with me if you want, but I am personally convinced that we have now crossed the border into these days. I don't know how long these days are going to last, but we're now in these days.
There's a sudden, it seems since COVID, for example, there's a sudden release of immorality all over the world and confusion. Nobody seems to understand what truth, even truth now, as Isaiah said, has fallen into the streets and nobody knows what truth is anymore. So we're going to have to fight this temptation to grow cold and draw back. We're going to have to fight to stay in the calling that God has placed on each of our lives by the strength of God's Holy Spirit within us.
We're going to have to do this. Paul the apostle said in 2 Timothy 4, verse 3 and 4, The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they'll heap up for themselves teachers and turn their ears away from the truth and be turned to fables. Basically, I see it this way. In the house of God, many people will turn from the word of God and want to be entertained. Most likely because they feel so oppressed out there, they're just looking for a measure of happiness in their lives. And so they will go where speakers make them laugh. They will go where speakers make them feel good about themselves.
Now, what the speakers are saying may not be true. It might even be, it can be a true story, but it's not the word of God. And much of it will just be stories. It'll be just entertainment.
Whoever puts on the best show is going to get the crowds in the last days. And how sad that is that people will be turned from the word of God, as the scripture says, and they'll be turned to just stories and entertainment in the house of God. But the worst of it all, in the gospel again of Matthew chapter 24 and verse 24, Jesus said, In the last of these last days, false Christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Great signs and wonders. You know, I don't need a sign and I don't need a wonder because Christ has transformed my life. I don't need a Jesus out there because I have a Jesus in here. He has changed me from image to image and glory to glory. So if somebody says, behold, he's in this place or behold, he's over there. I don't need to go there because he's already here.
He's already in my life and he's already changing my life, already changing my mind. He's already answering my prayers. And so I don't need an outside display. And most of the people who are deceived by signs and wonders are people who have nothing going on inside of themselves. They're empty inside, so they need a manifestation of something to prove, as they see it, the reality of God. But the reality of God, behold, Jesus himself said, the kingdom of God is within you. Don't look for outward signs for the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you. Hallelujah.
I love the old hymn that says, morning by morning, new mercies I see, morning by morning. I thank God for the years where we get up and we don't understand how it happened, but we're changed and we're changing. Our minds are changing. Our hearts are changing.
Our direction is changing. Our attitudes are changing because the power of God is at work within our lives. And we're not in need of some kind of an outward display of the presence of God because his presence is already in us doing the work that only he can do. Jesus said, if possible, if possible, these signs and wonders will be sent to deceive even the elect. And I thank God for the words, if possible. I really, I don't know about you, but I thank God for those words. You see, if you have an honest relationship with God, the inference is you won't be deceived. The Lord will keep you. Oh, you might have a stray thought go through your mind. You might consider something for a moment, but ultimately you will continuously be drawn back because you know his voice and you belong to him. My sheep hear my voice. They know my voice and they follow me.
So even if you end up in the wrong place, suddenly God will start speaking to you and draw you back again because you belong to him. How do I stay victorious in an environment like this? You know, we're living in those days now. We're living in the days where just it's like even to read the news is a baptism of filth.
How else can you describe it? Confusion is everywhere. Truth is gone. People have their own concept of truth. And even if it's proven a lie, they don't care.
It's still their truth. There's confusion about identity. There's confusion about this world.
There's confusion of almost every conceivable level. And so the question is, how do I stay victorious when this is all around me and is the battle I'm going to have to face in the last days? Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23.
The writer says, Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. In other words, don't start mimicking the spirit of this age. Don't speak the things that those who are outside the kingdom of God are speaking. Don't get drawn into this net and into this trap.
Don't let this become. Keep your heart with all diligence. Keep yourself in the love of God. Keep your mind in the word of God. Put crooked lips far from you.
Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look straight before you. In other words, I'm running this race that God has set before me. And I'm looking at the finish line and Paul the Apostle said, The race is not run if we don't run it according to the rules. So I'm going to look in the word of God and whatever God says, if he says forgive your enemies on the road of this, I'm going to forgive my enemies. If God tells me to give, I'm going to give. If God tells me, whatever he tells me to do, that's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to keep my eyelids looking straight ahead. The Proverbs writer says, Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. And don't turn to the right or the left and remove your foot from evil. And here's the first thing to do. If you're going to get through these days, turn away from what you know is not good and is not God.
Trust God for the strength. Whatever it is that you're involved in right now, just say, God, help me. You know doing drugs is wrong. You know drinking alcohol and being drug at night is wrong. You know that adultery is wrong. You know that lustful eyes are not God's will for your life.
All of these things, and you know it's not right. And the first thing to do to fight this fight that we have to fight to get through the deception that is all around us today is turn from what you know to be evil in your life. And then Proverbs 7, again, verses 1 to 3. He says, My son, keep my words and treasure my commands within you. Keep my commands and live and my law as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers and write them on the tablet of your heart. In other words, hold to the word of God. Hold this in your hands and hold it in your heart. And say, God, let this word be written in my heart. Not just in my head.
It's wonderful to learn it. But it's got to eventually become part of the very fabric of our being. God, help me. God, help me to embrace your word to the point where your word lives in me. Oh, God, I just don't want to be able to spout scripture.
Remember Martha in the story? All she could do was quote scripture, but it wasn't in her. It was on her lips, but it was not in her heart. God, help me. God, help me to believe your word. Write it on the table of my heart, not just on the cells in my brain. Write it on the table of my heart. Let it be your word that I embrace. God, I don't want my own thoughts.
I don't want the thoughts of this generation. I don't want the stray thoughts of the devil to dominate my... I want your word to be written inside my heart. I want your word to be my value system. I want it to be in my hands. I want it to be the thing that's before my eyes and in the center of my very being. So I'm asking you, God, to write your word on the table of my heart. Don't let me be led by my own thoughts or by the thoughts of anybody else around me. Verse 6, the writer says, For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice, and I saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner.
And he took the path to her house in the twilight in the evening, in the black and dark night. Be aware. This is a passage that deals with spiritual seduction. These voices that come to say, hey, hey, you can worship here. You know, the good man is gone, and I have sacrifices. And I have offerings to give to you.
Come in here and start. It's a spiritually seductive voice that's going to raise up in this generation in ever-increasing measure. And the way to be safe is to be aware that this is out there. Be aware. Don't be fooled, and don't be foolish. Verses 21 to 23 of Proverbs 7, the writer says, With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, and with her flattering lips she seduced him. Immediately he went after her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stalks, till an arrow struck his liver.
And as a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know that it would cost his life. Point being, not everything that sounds good is good. I'm really concerned about young people who are sermon tasting online nonstop. And you can be sure that the devil makes it sound good. The devil makes it sound appealing. It sounds like such fun. It sounds like it's going to bring such joy into your life.
But not everything that sounds good is good. It has to line up with the total Word of God, the rightly divided Word of God. You can't just take one verse out of context.
You have to know this Word. It's got to be in your heart. And I'm speaking to you online too as well. You say, oh pastor, you're talking about future struggles.
My present struggles are enough as it is. No, I'm trying to prepare you so that you can get through the quagmire of confusion that's coming into this world as we know it today. And that you can eventually join us at the throne of God and say, oh God, thank you that I was able to hear your Word.
Thank you that you were able to get a hold of my heart and you were able to transform my life and keep me. And lastly, verse 24 to 27, Now therefore listen to me, my children, pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways, and do not stray into her paths, for she has cast down many wounded. Now listen to this verse. And all who were slain by her were strong men.
Her house is the way to hell, descending to the chambers of death. Point being, don't think that you can get away with the same thing that brought others before you down. I can't tell you how many times I've seen this in my lifetime. People who thought they were strong enough in themselves to resist or to just flirt with temptation, flirt with something they knew wasn't right. And the next thing you know, their life is an absolute total train wreck.
And I've sat with them. I've had opportunity to count people who were strong in themselves, naturally strong, and they thought they were smarter than God. The writer of Proverbs was one of them, case in point. He wrote all of this and yet didn't obey it. He thought he was strong enough. He'd had so many victories over the years, he thought, no, nobody could ever take me down, not realizing that the little compromises in his life that he knew were wrong.
He allowed them into his life and eventually writes in Ecclesiastes, I was in total ruin, almost total ruin in the congregation and in the assembly. I encourage you, people who are here today and listening online, to determine in your heart that I will trust Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone for my salvation. I'm not trusting in myself.
I'm not trusting in anybody else's voice out there. I'm going to prove everything that I hear in the Word of God. And I'm not going to trust in my own righteousness. I'm trusting in Christ for my salvation. I'm trusting in his shed blood for the forgiveness of my sins. I'm trusting in his promise to cover me, cleanse me, and forgive me. I'm trusting in the promise that he's going to keep me all the days of my life and he's going to bring me home. I'm trusting in his truth, that his truth is sufficient to show me the way that I need to go through this life and to get into eternity with God in heaven. I am not trusting anyone or anything but Jesus Christ for my salvation. Folks, I'm telling you, don't trust anything in this generation. Prove it for yourself. Get in the Word of God.
You who are at home, you might be addicted, afflicted. You might be in trial and difficulty, but you can still get a Bible. You can get a new living edition. You can get a Bible that you can easily read. You read it for yourself and you read it with a prayerful heart.
That's what I did before I came to Christ as my Savior. I opened the Bible in the Gospel of John and I said, Jesus Christ, if this is true, show it to me. I read the Gospel of John and as I read it, as God lives, he began to give me an understanding of the cross, who I was, who he was, what he did on the cross, what he's asking me to do, and what he promised to do in my life.
Reading the Word of God. Get into the Word of God and trust him alone for your salvation and for his keeping power. I will secondly believe that his promise that my life will be renewed is sufficient for me. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.
The old things in his life, behold, are passed away and all things have become new. I will believe his promise not only to save me, but to change me and to keep me and to make me or you into the person that God has destined us to be. When that begins to happen in your life, you will not be deceived by false signs and wonders. You will not be drawn by seductive voices away from the simplicity of Christ and his victory on the cross and his promise to each one of our lives. Let it be sufficient for you and I that Christ is in us. Christ has promised to keep us. Christ will be our strength. Christ will be our freedom. Christ will be our doctrine. Christ will be our hope. Christ will be our life. Christ will be our protection. Christ will be our provider.
Christ will change me from the inside out, transform my life, that as I said earlier, I don't need exterior signs and wonders to prove the reality of God, for the sign and wonder of his presence is in my life and he has transformed me. Christ will be the giftings that I need to do what I'm called to do. Christ will be the provision I need to have what I need when I get to where he calls me to go. Christ will be the pathway before me. Christ will be the voice behind me that says, this is the way, walk in it. Christ will give me the ability to stand against the arguments of darkness and bring these thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Jesus Christ. I will study the word of God and I will ask God to write his word upon my heart. You never get to the point where you don't need the word of God anymore.
If you think you're at that point, you're on the way now to becoming a captive to the powers of darkness. I need this word every day. This is spiritual food for my soul. This is clarity for my mind. This is healing for my body.
This is direction for my feet. This is light in my darkness. This is life in the midst of my heart and the death that is manifesting itself all around me in this world. And lastly, I will follow where his word and his spirit lead me. Praise be to God.
I will not be led by my own thoughts. I'll not be led by my own desires, but where God's word tells me, what God's word speaks to me and where the spirit of God leads me, that's where I'll go. That's where it all began, folks. God said, and the spirit moved. God said, and the spirit moved. God said, and the spirit moved.
That's where it all began and that's what will keep you and that's what will keep me. God speaks, and the spirit moves. God tells me what I need to be, and the spirit moves and makes that a reality in my life. God tells me where he wants to take me, and the spirit moves and gives me the resource, the strength and the power to go where he's called me to go.
And where will I end up when this is all over? John chapter 10, verse 27 and onward. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My father has given them to me as greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one. I will follow where he leads me and he will carry me there in the palm of the hand of God. And I know when the devil tries to get into our heads, when the devil tries to bring us to a place where he can weaken us or unwind our resolve to follow Christ according to his word, the Lord will say, uh-uh, this one belongs to me. This one is mine. This one has trusted me.
This one has been able to be led into the care of my hand. And I have this picture in my mind that I'm being carried by God all the days in my life. And one day he just goes like this at the throne of God and says, here we go.
It lets me out of his hand. And in the hand of God, Jesus said, I give them eternal life, they will never perish and nobody can take them out of the hand of God. Praise be to God.
Praise be to God. Yes, we're going to have tribulation in this world. Jesus told us, it's one of his promises, in this world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
He said, I have overcome this world. We're going to go through flood and fire and trial. There's gonna be persecution in this generation against the church. There's going to be an ever deepening confusion come into this world. Violence is going to be on the increase. Incivility is going to grow.
Our cities are gonna go into chaos. There's not much doubt about any of this anymore, but we are going to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. We're gonna be walking through the midst of this world and there's a day coming, folks, trust me, that the unregenerate around us are gonna say, would you give me a reason for the hope that is in you in this darkened time in which we're living in?
Oh yes, they're coming your way, but hold firm, hold firm. We will have to go through the storm like everyone else, but Christ is with us, Christ is with us. We will not be overcome, we will not drown, we will not be burned.
The devil will never triumph over those who belong to Jesus Christ. So take courage and take heart. Trust Jesus for your salvation.
You can't save yourself. Simply believe that he took your place for the wrong that you have done on a cross 2,000 years ago and in the shedding of his blood paid the price for that which you've done, which is wrong, which the Bible calls sin. The way you've lived, the way you've thought, the way you've spoken, things that are outside of what God intended your life to be. Believe that Jesus took your place and simply confess him with your mouth.
There's no real formula to this. Just say, Jesus, you're my God, you're my savior, my Lord. I open my heart to you, I invite you into my life to be my God and my savior and I want to walk with you all the days of my life and I will tell others about you.
I will tell others what you have done in my life and what you have done for me. Just believe, just believe that he took your place and offers you eternal life and trust him. As I said to you earlier, when you are in Christ, you become a new creation. All the bungee cords that try to hold you to old ways of living and old ways of thinking are cut at the cross and you're free from your past. You're free from its influence and your future.
You're made into a new creation, the person that God always desired and designed you to be before sin got ahold of your life. Pray this simple prayer with me. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for loving me. Thank you for giving your life for me. Thank you for suffering the punishment I deserved so that I could be forgiven. I open my heart to you and I receive your offer of forgiveness, I receive your cleansing, I receive your offer of eternal life in heaven.
Jesus Christ, you are my God and I will walk with you all the days of my life. I trust you to keep me no matter what comes against me. I trust you to keep me. I trust you to keep me.
I trust you to keep me. The message today has been brought to you by Carter Conlon from Times Square Church. For more information, log on to tsc.nyc. That's tsc.nyc. Plan to be with us next week for A Call to the Nation with Carter Conlon.
