R631 Standing Firm In Difficult Times

Standing firm in difficult times, that's today's message on this edition of the Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilson. We're headed to Matthew 24, but we're also connecting right now on our website at www.tewonline.org. Great resources, especially a book from Dr. Wilson's son, Dr. Greg Wilson.

It's online at www.tewonline.org. And now, Dr. Don Wilson. Jesus had some of the most salient, staggering, important things to say just before he died. I want to remind you that the Lord Jesus had not yet died.

The disciples and those to whom he was speaking knew nothing about these things. We as human beings, contrary to public opinion, contrary to modern psychic phenomena, have no ability to see the future. We have neither been there nor do we understand it, nor can we go there by some kind of psychic means. The only one who is the future, he's the past and he's the present, all wrapped up in one, is God our Heavenly Father. And because Jesus Christ is God, and you will remember that Jesus told us that, he said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and the Father are one. And so Jesus, who is God, here in Matthew 24, is standing, if you please, and he is looking into the future where he already is.

Now, that's hard for us to understand that, isn't it? Hard to understand that somebody could already be in the future before they've ever got there, but that's because he's God. And so, here is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, and he's looking down time.

What is he seeing? Well, he is seeing his death, burial, and resurrection, and his ascension to be seated at the right hand of the Father. He is seeing the church age, could be back over here, in terms of God's chronology or unfolding of events. But Jesus is looking down the passing of time, and way down here, he sees what we've come to call the rapture of the church that's going to be the coming of the Lord. And you cannot separate God, the Lord Jesus Christ, from the unfolding of events.

They don't take place apart from one another. If you want to understand what's going to happen, you've got to understand what Jesus teaches us about himself. And one of those things is we know that at the end of the church age, let me remind you of something, my dear friends. Nobody knows that time. Nobody knows that time.

Nobody. The Bible tells us. Only God does. In fact, the Lord is going to come as a thief in the night.

But Jesus is looking down, and he's giving us an unfolding of events, the rapture of the church, which we read about in Thessalonians, the seven year tribulation, the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the battle of Armageddon, and then the new heaven and the new earth, the great white throne judgment, all those things that take place that the Bible teaches us about. Now, if I may just walk all the way back across here again, because this is a long time, folks. This is hundreds of years, but we don't know how long. It could be hundreds more years. It could be next year. It could be this week. This could be the hour. Bottom line, we need to be ready.

That's the bottom line, and we need to encourage one another. And Jesus is looking down here, and in Matthew 24, Jesus makes a staggering statement of singular significance. He says in chapter 24 and verse 13, and then I want to read this again to you. He says, those who stand firm to the end.

Now watch this again. He says, who is going to end up being in heaven with me? If this is heaven and this is eternity here, who's going to be here? Jesus says, all those who remain in me, those who stand firm and those who pass through the test of difficulty and time through the unfolding of the ages who belong to me are at periods in time when they die are going to be with me. They're going to be with me. Those who are left and alive at the rapture are going to go to be with me. Those who come to know Jesus during the tribulation are going to go with me, and the ones who are going to be all time and eternity in heaven are those who have stood firm. In other words, those who belong to me, because only those who belong to me can stand firm, can remain steadfast. The word here is the word abiding, and Jesus uses this in John 15. It's the vine and the branches. He says, if you abide in me and I in you.

In other words, if you and I are inextricably intertwined with one another together. Now let's read this. Chapter 24 and verse one, Jesus left the temple, walking away when the disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. Do you see all these things he asked? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another.

Everyone will be thrown down. Later on, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately and said, tell us, they said, and here's the three questions. See, I don't think that you can understand these things if you don't understand what the question was to begin with. Do you know why many people don't know the answers to things?

They don't know what the question is. We're all smitten with that, aren't we? Well, here it is, question number one, when will this happen? When will the temple come crumbling down? Number two, what will be the sign of your coming? Number three, when will be the end of the age?

Jesus answered, this is what he said, watch out that no one deceives you, for many will come in my name, claiming I'm the Christ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed, because such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.

All of these are the beginnings of birth pains. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death. By the way, that little word then is very important. That little word then is a very key indicator as to what Jesus was saying. I believe that what Jesus was saying is after all of these things, then he's going to move us into the tribulation period and he's going to say that after the church has been removed, there are going to be a, there is going to be a climactic expression of persecution. There is going to be a climactic expression of expression of persecution. The tribulation is the crescendo of persecution. We could start with a drum roll right here and we could roll that drum and roll that drum and eventually when you get up here into the tribulation, that drum roll is going to be deafening. It's going to build up to such a climax and when you get to the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, kaboom, boof, bang, it all comes together and Satan is defeated and cast into a prison and Jesus sets up his reign upon this earth. Or here Jesus says, then you will be handed over to be persecuted, verse nine, and put to death and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold and here it is. This is a great verse. But he who stands firm to the end will be saved. Now very quickly, turn with me to Matthew chapter five.

Everybody turn there. Love to hear the rustle of the pages of the word of God. Matthew chapter five and verse 10. I'm going to show you an incredible passage. By the way, in Matthew chapter five, we have what is called the Beatitudes. And here Jesus was sitting not too far off from the shore of the Sea of Galilee, a beautiful mountainside overlooking, looking down south toward the opening of the river Jordan, at least to the outflow as it moves down to Jericho and then into the Dead Sea. And Jesus was up there on the Mount of Beatitudes, marvelous natural amphitheater.

You can just imagine that the Lord Jesus had all these thousands of people sitting out there and he was teaching them, boys and girls, just like your Sunday school teachers do. And he was up there and he was telling them and he was telling them wonderful stories and helping them to understand the word of God. And one of the things that Jesus said is right there in verse 11. He said, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then he goes on, he says, blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad because great is your, here it is, your reward in heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Why did Jesus talk about the prophets? Because those disciples and the Jewish people there, they knew about the law and the prophets. They had read about them.

They'd done very well in Sunday school classes. And when Jesus said, you know the prophets, they all said, aha, see he, Jesus, maybe he even said, all not like this. You know the prophets? They all said, yep, we know the prophets.

Well, tell me about them. Well, the prophets were bold men of God. Boy, they held firm to the faith.

They stood far. How did they die? Oh, well, this one was executed and this one lost his life and this one was persecuted.

And remember how that King got ahold of this one and chopped off his head. And Jesus looked at them and he said, well, where are those prophets now? And they all said, oh, we know where they are. They're in heaven with God. He said, well, just the same way as the prophets you respect and know are up in heaven with me, having gone through persecution, but having stood firm, so it is with all those who are persecuted for my sake are going to end up in heaven. But I want you to know you're going to get persecuted.

Now here's the question. Why did Jesus tell us these things? Forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with the completion of today's message, but don't forget you can sign up for a daily email from Dr. Wilton on our website at www.tewonline.org. Top of the page, you'll see the word devotion. Click on that and you can sign up to either receive a physical copy or get an email every day from Dr. Wilton.

Again, just by signing up online at www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. Here he is standing here and he's talking to his disciples and he gives all this bad news about all these difficult times. Why would he do that?

Four reasons. Number one, want to give us a word of fact. Jesus remembers looking down the path of time and he's saying these things are going to happen. It's just a fact. I don't know about you, but every now and again I've had someone come to me and say, pastor, if I give my heart to Jesus, does that mean to say that from then on everything's just going to be absolutely wonderful? Nope, not at all. No, in the Bible, as the Bible say, when you give your heart to Jesus, that you'll never have another headache, you'll never fight with your husband, you'll never have a problem at home, your children will never give you grief, you'll never have another financial need. No, the Bible doesn't say that. You see, Jesus was making a statement of fact, giving us a word of fact. The second thing he was doing is giving us a word of warning. He was giving us a word of warning. He was saying, I don't only want to tell you the facts, but I want to warn you. The third thing he's going to do is give us a word of instruction, a word of instruction.

He's going to tell us what to do about it. And the fourth thing he's going to do, and I love this part, gives us a word of encouragement. Here, Jesus is saying something that is profoundly significant. And the interesting thing is, my beloved friends this morning, is that the Lord Jesus points to four major difficulties that are going to transpire between the time that he says these things and the time that he comes back again. Number one, and we've talked about this, I'm not going to camp on it, he talks about massive deception, massive deception.

Here in these verses, he says, watch out that no one deceives you. Now, what's he doing? He's giving us a fact. He's issuing a word of warning. He's giving us instructions.

Open your eyes, be aware of it. Elsewhere, he tells us how to handle false prophets and people who deceive and try to take away from the Lord Jesus Christ. And in all of that, what's he doing? He's encouraging our hearts.

Why? My heart is always encouraged when I know God has said something. He's put that fact in my heart. He's given me a warning. He's instructing me to how to handle it. That encourages me. It doesn't eliminate the problem, but it helps me to be able to undergo the journey. So the first area of difficulty that Jesus warns us about in these last days, massive deception. Folks, today, in the year 2000, by the way, did all of you note that yesterday was 222? Doesn't often happen that way, does it? It was the second of the second of the second.

Now you can put an O in front of it if you want to. That's fine with me. But you know, folks, listen, in this day and age, in February of the year 2002, the deception that is out in the world today, the number of false prophets, the tug of war that is going on, the numbers of religions that have proliferated right throughout the world, trying to take away from Jesus Christ and him crucified, has multiplied over and over and over and over again. Jesus is saying these are going to be difficult times.

Number two, second difficulty he talks about is increased warfare. Increased warfare in verse six and seven, increased warfare. By the way, you'll be interested in this, perhaps, in verse six there, Jesus says, you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

Well, I guess because I need to know these things, I went back and just studied the syntactical development of that little phrase, you will hear. The word there is the word mellow, M-E-L-L-O, to transliterate it from the Greek text and that literally means that Jesus was saying, you will be continuing to hear of wars and rumors of wars. But I'm going to tell you something that because of the sin of man, which is exceedingly wicked, not only is there going to be massive deception, but there is going to be increasing wars and rumors of wars. And it is going to be jolly difficult to be a Christian in the middle of all of that. You know, I've often wondered what it must be like to be the president of the United States of America and be a born-again Christian at the same time. You ever thought about that? Have you ever thought about the fact that if a man is a born-again Christian and is unapologetic about his faith in Christ Jesus and wants to be president of the United States of America, he probably would never get elected.

He probably would never get elected, not in today's day and age. In America today, my friends, we have espoused the philosophy that everything is important, all beliefs, everybody has value. God is the same God, no matter how you worship him, no matter how you get there, that Jesus Christ doesn't mind.

He stepped aside, he's abdicated his throne and anything goes. Jesus was looking down the passage of time and he was saying, I want to give you the facts, I want to warn you, I want to instruct you, but I want to encourage your heart that you are going to face unmitigated difficult times, but those who stand firm to the end will be saved. That's what Jesus was saying. There's a third thing here in this passage that the Bible teaches us about, that the Lord spoke about, not any massive deception and increased warfare, but worldwide devastation. Right there in verse 7, the Bible says, there will be famines and earthquakes in various places, very interesting. Now, what do you suppose Jesus was talking about when he spoke about worldwide devastation? Jesus here was talking about a fact and Jesus was saying something that we Americans have a hard time understanding. Jesus was saying, listen, I am going to come back, but before I come, there are going to be difficult times and circumstances such of which you have no idea, but those who stand firm and who stand up for me and who belong to me, those will be saved.

I give you my guarantee. That's what he's saying. But there's a fourth area of difficulty, not just massive deception and increased warfare and worldwide devastation, but the fourth one he refers to here in chapter 24 as the delivering up of believers. Now, verse 9 is an interesting verse here in chapter 24, and I've alluded to this already.

In verse 8, it seems like he draws a line, he shifts gear, he even introduced there in perhaps in parentheses, but with a major emphasis, an imperative emphasis. Here in verse 9, then after these things, but on a continuing continuum. In other words, Jesus is not saying that the delivering up of believers is uniquely only going to happen during the tribulation period. What Jesus is saying here is that the handing over of believers and the persecution associated with believers for righteousness sake is going to come to a climactic resolution during the tribulation period.

It is going to be, if you think it's bad now, you don't want to be here during the tribulation. And Jesus here literally says that these people will be delivered up. You'll be interested to know that the word there will be handed over, paradidym in the Greek text, is the same word that is used when Jesus was handed over. The Son of Man will be delivered up. He will be handed over to be killed. God's word says Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will be handed up. He will be delivered over to the chief priests and the elders. And then he will be handed over to the Romans who will bead up on him and put a crown of thorns on his head and will lead him to Golgotha and will execute him.

That's what it means to be handed over. Now, who was Jesus? Jesus was the sinless one.

Jesus is the spotless Lamb of God. Jesus Christ did not deserve any of this, but he was delivered over. He was handed over.

He was handed over. Here Jesus is saying, listen, you belong to me. You are being persecuted for righteousness. Why was Jesus executed? Jesus was executed for righteousness sake. Jesus was executed because of the holiness of Almighty God. Jesus was executed because the world knew him, but they would not accept him.

Jesus knew him because we behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten, full of grace and full of truth. And the word says those who did receive him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to those that believe on his name. What's Jesus talking about in Matthew 24? Talking about the giving up, the handing over of believers. Well, let's just focus our attention then on the tribulation. Here's the rapture of the church. The Holy Spirit's gone. Christian people are gone.

The witness of the church is gone. How do people come to know Jesus during the tribulation? By the way, how do we know that there are going to be people saved during the tribulation?

Because the Bible tells us. You can read about it in Revelation 6 verses 9 through 11. You can read about it in Revelation 20 verse 4. The souls of those that were beheaded for the sake of Christ, who had not, listen to this, who had not, who had refused to receive the bark of the beast on their foreheads or in their hands, they had refused to acquiesce to the antichrist, and the question is this. How in the world can they get saved? There's no Holy Spirit to convict them.

There's no church to teach them. How do they come to know Christ? There's four ways that they get saved.

Write this down if you've ever wondered about this. Number one, by what they heard prior to the rapture, by what they heard prior to the rapture. Now remember that the tribulation is only seven years long in length, and so I do not believe this can refer to people who are born at the time of the tribulation, because they've only got seven years. The first three and a half years is the time of peace. The second three and a half years is a time of unmitigated terror. Is it possible for someone seven years and age and younger to get saved?

Of course it is. We have that happen every week, but I'm going to say to you that I believe that there are people who are going to come to know, give their hearts to Jesus because of what they heard prior to the rapture. Now who are those people? Number one, they cannot be people with whom the Spirit of God has strived, because if the Spirit of God has been speaking to you, and the Spirit of God has revealed Jesus Christ to you, and you've said no, you've sinned away your day of grace, you can go through a hundred tribulations, you're not going to get saved. Number two, tribulation saints are going to be saved, I believe, by the events of the rapture itself. There's a third means by which tribulation saints are going to be saved, and you can turn with me and look at it in Revelation chapter 11, very quickly. The Bible talks about the preaching of the two witnesses, verse three of Revelation and chapter 11. And so, those who are going to be saved during the tribulation could possibly come to know Jesus Christ because of the preaching of the two witnesses. How are they going to be saved? Not only by the preaching of the two witnesses, but I believe by the resurrection of the two witnesses.

Here's the bottom line. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? Someone said to me, where's the safest place in the world? And I told them, in the hands of the Lord Jesus. You've been listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and from the pulpit he's been bringing insight to this concept of standing firm and difficult times, but as he steps into the studio, would you open your heart to what he wants to share with you next? Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news!

They're absolutely free. 866-899-9673 is the number. Or, meet us online at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org.