The End is Near? - Part B

I'm going to give you the code to unlock prophetic scripture. It's a five-digit code. You're going to want to write this down. This is important.

You put this code in every Old Testament verse and it just opens up for you. Here it is. Here it is.

Here it is. J-E-S-U-S. You guessed that. You knew that was coming. That's the password. That unlocks the scripture. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Pastor Skip gives you the master key to unlock the mysteries of Old Testament prophecy. But first, here's a resource that helps you better understand the end times.

Here are some of the titles in the End is Near series by Pastor Skip Heitzig. Israel Must Survive, Rapture Ready, and Russia's Coming Invasion. Surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. So when God is going to do something, he warns his people.

He sends a sign so his people will know that he's going to do something. Skip Heitzig's teaching series now has a companion study guide available to you. The End is Near guide covers all 26 messages that Skip recently presented. We can just look at the chessboard. The pieces are all lining up in interesting fashion. The End is Near study guide includes notes, summaries, and questions for group or personal study.

We need to understand the times and this study guide will aid in this effort. With your gift of $50 or more to connect with Skip Heitzig, you will receive a copy of the End is Near study guide from Skip's in-depth 26-part series. Your gift will support the production and expansion of the Connect with Skip broadcast. Call 1-800-922-1888 or go online to connectwithskip.com.

That's 1-800-922-1888 or connectwithskip.com. Now let's turn over to Second Peter One to hear what Skip has for us today. The Transfiguration is what is known in the film industry as a trailer, a preview of coming attractions, a highlight, a clip if you will. Peter, James, and John got a clip of an event that is more fully described in Revelation chapter 19. That is the glorious coming of Jesus Christ to the earth.

That's the point. The point is the focus of biblical prophecy, the focus of last day events is not the rapture, not the tribulation, not the European union, not Gog and Magog, not the mark of the beast. The focus of eschatology is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Christ. He is the star on the center stage of prophecy. Every prophetic subject that deals with the last days focuses, centers, concentrates on Jesus Christ. So, for example, there's much about Israel in prophecy. Why?

Because Israel is the genetic national conduit that gave us Christ. There's much about the rapture. Why? Because the rapture is what unites us believers physically with Christ.

There's much about the tribulation in prophecy. Why? Because it is that season that will prepare the world through judgment for the return of Christ. There's much, much, much about the millennial kingdom.

Why? Because it describes the literal kingdom of Christ. It's all about Christ. All about Christ. When Jesus was having a conversation with the religious leaders who opposed him, he said to them, you search the scriptures for in them you think that you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. You read that book, you study that book, you underline that book, you memorize those verses.

Don't you realize that what they're really talking about is moi? They testify of me. The Bible. All 66 books essentially.

Here it is in a nutshell. The Bible in a nutshell, it's about one person and two events. That's the whole Bible right there. One person, two events. One person is Christ. Two events, first coming, second coming. First coming, redemption. Second coming, rule. You're going to find that the prophecies of the future center around either the predictions of his first coming or his second coming to rule. I have a love-hate relationship with Luke chapter 24.

I love it because, well, I'll tell you why I love it as I explain this to you, but I also don't like it because of what is left out. So in Luke chapter 24, Jesus has risen from the dead. He meets two disciples on the road to Emmaus. They don't know it's him.

He walks up alongside them. You know the story well. And they're so bummed out that Jesus has died. They think it's hopeless. It's over now, and Jesus says to them, this is so cool. Oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have written. Ought not the Christ to have suffered and entered into his glory. Then it says this, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scripture the things concerning himself. I love that. What do I love about it?

It's the first Bible study after the resurrection, and it was a prophetic Bible study. Number two. Well, let me not go to number two. Let me go to why I don't like it. What I don't like about it is that Luke left it out.

This is so cool. Jesus showed up and gave a prophetic Bible study. What do you say exactly? Well, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, yeah, well, could you like fill in a little more of that? I feel so cheated that that's not in the scripture.

Love to have a CD of that. I'm guessing Jesus must have taken them to Genesis chapter 3 and explained the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. I'm sure he must have discussed the coverings of skin that the Lord provided as an atonement for their sin. I'm guessing he went to Genesis 22 where Isaac was almost sacrificed on the exact same mountain Jesus was sacrificed on years later. He probably went to Exodus chapter 12, talked about the blood of the lamb on the lintels and the doorposts. Probably talked about the Levitical sacrifices and how he fulfilled them and the tabernacle structure and how he fulfilled that. He probably stopped at Leviticus 16, talked about the scapegoat.

I'm that scapegoat. No doubt he talked about Psalm 22. No doubt he mentioned Isaiah chapter 53.

He may have even looked at Daniel chapter 7, the son of man prophecy, and Daniel chapter 9. How many of you have one of these? Anybody have a device? Okay, so do you have a passcode? Is yours locked? Do you lock yours? Okay, not everybody does. I don't, which is dangerous.

But how many of you have an app on your phone or apps on your phone? Okay, do you have passwords for those? Do you find, like me, that keeping your passwords... That's sort of hard. What is that password?

Where did I put that exactly? It's hard to keep track of all these passwords. But every device, every app, every system has its passcode, right? You have to put in letters, numbers, or symbols that make your password to unlock it. I'm going to give you the code to unlock prophetic Scripture. It's a five-digit code. You're going to want to write this down. This is important.

You put this code in every Old Testament verse, and it just opens up for you. Here it is. Here it is.

Here it is. J-E-S-U-S. You guessed that. You knew that was coming.

That's the password. That unlocks the Scripture. It's amazing how when you put Him in Isaiah 53, it blossoms. You put Him in Psalm 22. It makes sense on and on and on.

So just as the planets of our solar system revolve around the sun, all nations, all events, all of God's plans throughout history rotate around His Son. And the study of last things will lead any mature believer who responsibly studies eschatology, it will lead you right to Christ every time. It will enlarge Christ every time.

It will magnify Him and show Him more capable. So prediction, concentration, third word is deception. Deception. You got to bring this up because it is predicted probably as much as anything else concerning the end times. Jesus in Matthew 24 repeated it frequently that in the last days would be false messiahs and false Christ and false teaching and much deception and He said many people will be deceived. Now we know there's always been that. That's always been part of truth and God's work is that there are deceivers. But you can expect an uptick in that activity as we are in the last days. I think we see that. I would describe today as sort of a cultural syncretism much like what happened in the Old Testament when they started bringing idols into God's temple in Jerusalem.

That's syncretism. They were basically saying there are many different gods and many different options and yes there's our God, Yahweh, but He's on a par with all the other gods and goddesses of the land. And so our culture speaks of much tolerance. That's its favorite word, tolerance. Now we are told to celebrate everybody's morality or immorality, to tolerate everybody's religious ideas or non-religious ideas. Their favorite bumper sticker is coexist.

You've seen that on the back of cars, coexist. The only evil that they see in the midst of all of that is one and that's us. Fundamentalists, Bible-believing, Christ-anticipating Christians, those are the real enemy.

They don't tolerate us. Now deception is going to have two opposite sources. It's going to come from two places. Number one, inside the church. Number two, outside the church. Inside the church is 2 Peter chapter 2. Look at chapter 2. Chapter 2 verse 1. But there were also false prophets among the people pointing to the Old Testament. There were false prophets even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.

The entire second chapter of 2 Peter is devoted to that. Apostates. An apostate is a defector, somebody who leaves the truth, who says, yeah, I'm not into that stuff anymore.

I was before, but I've grown up. They will defect from the truth. They will be in the church.

This will be the religious world in the last days of falling away from historic Christianity. Here's the supplemental verse, 1 Timothy 4. Paul writes this, the Spirit expressly says, now that's very important. He just doesn't say the Holy Spirit is saying. He says the Spirit expressly says. The Holy Spirit specifically says. The Holy Spirit is saying something that you underline and put a star next to and highlight in yellow, expressly. The Spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines taught by demons. Did you know that every single New Testament book except one, that's the book of Philemon, predicts false teaching and gives warnings against false teaching? And if you don't believe apostasy is real, read Revelation 2 and 3 sometime, seven letters to seven churches. Every letter except one, Jesus says, you guys are blowing it. You're blowing it.

You're sliding away. You're leaving the faith. So don't be surprised when a Christian leader suddenly announces, I don't believe this stuff anymore. Don't be shocked when a Christian influencer on social media like some musician that you followed now renounces belief in Christ.

Or when a theologian decides to deconstruct the truth, that's their favorite word, to rethink long-held Christian beliefs. Ever heard the name Ted Turner? Yeah. Have you ever heard of CNN? Yeah, he invented CNN. So Ted Turner for years has criticized Christianity.

That's nothing new. But what you may not know is he was raised in a Christian home, a very strict Christian upbringing. In fact, Ted Turner said at one time in his life he considered being a missionary. He said, and I quote, I was saved seven or eight times.

Now, that's just Ted Turner talking. You can only be saved once. He said, I was saved seven or eight times, but he became disenchanted with Christianity after his sister died because he prayed and prayed and God didn't answer his prayer, so he got disenchanted. And then he said this, the more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt.

The more I strayed from the faith, the better I felt. But it's going to have another source. It's going to come from outside the church. Go back to 2 Peter 3 where we started. Verse 2, be mindful of the words which were spoken of by the holy prophets and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior.

Verse 3, knowing this first, that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation. We've heard this stuff for years.

We've watched people with sandwich boards for years. Everybody's predicted the end of the world for years. Nothing has changed.

Everything stays the same. Scoffer, that's the voice of the secular world, the mocker. A scoffer is a word that means one who treats lightly what should be taken seriously. One who treats lightly what should be taken seriously. I'm going to put verse 3 up in a different translation, the message.

I just want you to see it because it's so picturesque. First off, you need to know that in the last days, mockers are going to have a heyday. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, they'll mock. That got my attention.

Look at it again. Reducing everything to the level of their puny feelings, they'll mock. It's as if the Bible anticipated social media. Now, all of this deception is going to culminate. It's going to culminate in Revelation 13, where a culture, society is so stripped of any godly influence that the leader that emerges will be known as the beast. The beast having seven heads and ten horns, consolidating governmental power.

That's where history is moving, where government opposes and tries to control worship. The last days. Prediction, concentration, deception. Let me give you a final word as we close. Motivation. Motivation. Now, these four words are going to undergird our whole study in the rest of this series.

Motivation is the last word to look at today. Chapter 3, verse 10. He's still on this subject.

Here he is. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.

That's where the world's headed. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. See what he's doing here? He's using the end of the world to motivate them, to stimulate them to godly living.

Now, follow Peter's clear logic. If the Bible predicts the last days, and it does, and if it describes it as a time of spiritual apostasy and secular contempt, it should evoke a certain response among God's people. And what is that response?

Well, certainly not a materialistic response. If everything in the material world is going to be incinerated, if you're like a hyper, over materialistic person, you're going to be in sad shape. It should evoke a godly response. It should make us holy and hopeful, because as he says, we're looking for a better world, new heaven, new earth. Check verse 11 out. He says, therefore, since all these things are going to be dissolved, the house you just got into, isn't it fun?

It's awesome. It's going to burn up. That car is so shiny, it's going to burn up.

Man, I just got a good deal on these clothes at wherever. Going to burn up. And so all these things will be dissolved. I like this. What manner of persons ought you to be? Here's a better translation.

Here's a literal translation. What exotic person should you be? What out of this world or foreign manner of person should you be? In other words, he's saying the world is not our home, and because it's not our home, our conduct should be otherworldly.

A bit more otherworldly than it has been. Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, two men that I've served with, preached with, loved, now in heaven, said, nothing motivates the Christian like the study of prophecy. It puts an evangelistic fire in the heart of the church. It gives believers a vision for world missions. It injects a desire to live a holy life in an age of unholiness.

That's the profit of it. When you believe Jesus Christ is coming again, and you really believe it could happen at any moment for you, you're going to lead a clean life. Right? When my mom used to say, your dad will be home soon, changed everything about my attitude. And so 1 John chapter 3, when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, and everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as he is pure. One of the best ways to purify your life is study prophetic scripture. So what have we learned today? We've learned that if you're going to take the Bible seriously, you better study prophecy.

You have no right to leave one-fourth of it out. And when you do study prophecy, the proper study of it is going to lead you closer to Christ. It's going to drive you to him.

You're going to see him much clearer. But when you do, there are competing voices inside the church and outside the church to deceive you, discredit you, and derail you. Yet, keep at it, because the study of prophecy will motivate you like nothing else to a godly life. So now let me sum up this whole message with one little statement.

Ready? Keep your hand, keep your eye on the sky, and your hand to the plow. That's how you live. Keep your eye on the sky, keep your hand to the plow. Remember that.

Let's say it together. Keep your eye on the sky and your hand to the plow. Say that to your neighbor. Keep your eye on the sky and your hand to the plow. In other words, anticipate the future. Look for the coming of the Lord.

Anticipate that, but let that motivate you in the present to be responsible and godly. So listen, we're in the fourth quarter. We're in the fourth quarter. God has no more plays after this.

He's not sending another Messiah or another holy book. This is it. We're in the last days.

Fourth quarter. Game on. That's Skip Hyten. With a message from his series, The End is Near, find the full message as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskip.com. We'd love to partner with you to help share God's life-changing truth with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. You can take part in this life-changing work with a generous gift today to help keep this program reaching you and others across the globe. With your help, this ministry can continue to grow and reach more people with the timeless truth of scripture, changing lives for eternity. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give generously and share God's love with others. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate or call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Thank you for changing lives. Tomorrow, Skip begins a message examining the much debated topic of the return of Jesus. We all agree Jesus is coming. We all agree we should be ready. But the exact time of that event and how that will happen, that is a debated topic. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.