Perilous Times

Welcome to God First with Brian C. Thomas, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, let's join Brian C. Thomas for today's message. And as always, it is a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week.

I want to thank you for tuning in. Our Lord's holy word, the Bible, it tells us that in the last days, perilous times would come. And for people who are very familiar with our ministry, you may say to yourself, why is it that you put so much focus and emphasis on the troubles of the world?

Why is it that you put so much focus and energy on the judgments that are coming? Why don't you tell us about God's love? Why don't you tell us about God's blessings that he's going to pour out on us? And when I think about that, I think to myself, if we could go back into history thousands of years ago to the days of Noah, when Noah was building the ark and he was telling the people about the flood that was coming, the people were saying to Noah, don't tell us about a flood. We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear about judgment, Noah. They said, tell us about God's love. Tell us about the way God is going to bless us. That's what they wanted to hear.

But guess what? One day the raindrops began to fall. And as the waters began to rise, the people started to think we wished we had listened to what Noah had to say. And so when we look at ministries like ours, we are very Bible prophecy centric. We are a discernment ministry. And God has given us the mandate to warn people of what is to come. And we do that, though, out of love. It's not that we enjoy focusing on the troubles of the world. It's not that we find glee in it. But we want to warn people because we have the same desire that God has.

He said it is his will that none should perish, but that all come to know and receive the eternal life that comes through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And so that is our desire. That is why we talk about these things.

That is why we focus on these things. And when you look at it, it is a display of God's love. The fact that he has given us the opportunity to read scriptures that warn of impending judgment. It is a sign of his love that he's allowing us to to teach, to to share this word, to sound the trumpet of what is to come. He calls us to be watchmen on the wall. And he said that if we don't warn the people of what's to come, then he will hold us responsible.

He will hold us guilty. And so it is his love because it shows his mercy. It shows his compassion because he didn't have to warn us.

He could just say, obey him and leave the consequences to come when they come. But in his great love, because it is his will that none should perish, he is allowing us the opportunity to be able to warn people through his written word, through the Bible in which God has already stated what is to come. And he said what the conditions of the world would be like in the last days. And so he told us prophetically that in the last days, perilous times would come. But in the big picture, these things are pointing to the return of our great Lord.

And that is what we are excited about and looking forward to. And as I look around today as society, we are living in arguably one of the most difficult periods of world history since the beginning of the church age on a worldwide scale. We see so many things taking place and it is at a time in which we see things converging that the Bible says would happen in the last days.

If we look at 2 Timothy 3, beginning with verse 1, it says, But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, have any form of godliness but denying its power and from such people turn away. Folks, when we look around society, we see this throughout. This has infiltrated the times that we're living in. We see unholiness. We see lovers of pleasure without self-control.

We see that. And when we look at the satanic activity in the world, it should be an indicator to us, those of us who are professing believers in Jesus Christ, and we are truly born again, we should see this as indicators of our Lord's imminent return. It should let us know that Jesus said these are the things that would happen before he returns. But sadly, it seems as though so much of the church is asleep at the wheel, paying no attention, so much unaware of what is going on around us. And we are witnessing a decline of the impact of the church and the influence of Christianity on society.

We see that happening right before us. As an example of that, I want to share with you a portion of a sermon that came from Friendship West Baptist Church, where Frederick D. Haynes III is senior pastor. I want you to listen to a portion of this sermon that came out of his church just a short time ago in clip one. Do you know the words of the Declaration of Independence? We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men, all people are created equal.

I got to hang out there. Notice it does not say that all straight men are created equal. It does not say that all men, unless you are gay and lesbian, are created equal. OK, now let me pause there for a moment, because he's he's citing the Declaration of Independence and he is stating that all are created equal. I agree with that totally 100 percent that regardless of our lifestyle, regardless of the fact that, well, some people are in rebellion to God and they're doing things that are not of God. God did create all of us equal.

It is not God's desire that any should lord over another. And so I totally agree with what he is saying. But stick around because there's more. Well, and my brothers and sisters, I salute the president for that. Now, I recognize there were those who were upset about this.

But I got a question for you. Why are you so upset? Why did it bother you? So why were you so emotional that you had to clothe your anger with the Bible and justify your bigotry with scripture?

Why did you have to do it? OK, so let me just just sort of set the stage, the backdrop as to what's happening here. This was during the time period in which the president of our nation, not the current president, the former president, a former president, I will say.

Well, I'll just go ahead and say it. President Barack Obama, in which he had made a statement endorsing same sex marriage. And what we hear is this pastor who you'll you'll hear as we go further in the clip that he is a black pastor and he's pastoring a predominantly black church. It's actually considered a mega a mega church.

It is a very, very large church. And he's referencing the president's support of same sex marriage. And he's going on to say, though, that why are you using the Bible to to justify your anger?

That is the spin that he's putting on it. And let me just say that there are people who have used the Bible in the past. They have misused the Bible, misquoted the Bible to. Indorse and support wrongdoing to support slavery, to support lording over women.

We found people who have done that and that should not be done. But what we find here is that this pastor is he's twisting things around in order to justify support of the president. So so let's continue to listen.

I got to hang out here because you do know and I will lose some of y'all right now. We often major in what Jesus minored in. Have you ever read the gospel and heard Jesus say anything about homosexuality?

I'm with Kelly Brown Douglas. Black folk can't even deal with homosexuality because we got issues with sexuality. And because we've got issues with sexuality, we can't have a healthy discussion about homosexuality.

Ah, why? Why do you get so upset? Why are you so mad at the president that you got to call conference calls so you can organize the statement that you're going to make about what the president said? Why are you so angry?

Jesus never said a word about it, but you want to major in what Jesus minored in. Well, maybe we need to talk about what issues you may have because evidently you got some major issues or there is an ignorance that is rooted in fear. Y'all, I'm not feeling this, but I'm a preach the gospel anyhow because you do understand my brothers and sisters that the sad reality is we love to judge other folks since because it keeps it off of us as opposed to looking at us.

All right. So what we have here is something that is quite common. It's quite common in churches that they they want to find ways to support who they want to support. And they try to find ways to justify it. And it was something that was very common during the time of President Obama when he was in office.

A lot of of predominantly black churches. They wanted to support him and they did and they found ways in which to justify their support, even though the president believed in a lot of things and and not just believed in things, but actually was pushing to to pass legislation that would endorse immorality. And what we find is that this is a sugar coating of immorality to justify that support. You heard him say that we are majoring what Jesus minored in.

And what may be even worse than what we hear coming from the pulpit is the way that the people there are cheering him on the way that they are applauding and excited about what they are hearing. He's trying to say that, well, Jesus never said a word about it. So if Jesus didn't say anything about it, why are you worried about it?

Why are you becoming angry about it? Because there were some that that did not like it. There are some that parted ways with the president when he chose to make that decision to publicly endorse same sex marriage. And and some some did that. But but most still went along with them.

They found ways to justify their support. And when you hear the talk of judging other folks, seeing that that's a red flag, when you whenever you hear people that start talking about why are you judging other folk sins, that that's a red flag right there. And what he was referring to, he says, well, Jesus didn't say a word about it. He's speaking about, you know, the red letter Bible where you see what Jesus spoke during his time on Earth.

That's in red print. So he's saying the words never came out of Jesus's mouth. But let me ask the question. Did you hear Jesus say anything out of his mouth that is printed in the Bible concerning the use of illegal drugs? Did you hear Jesus say anything about domestic violence? Did you hear Jesus say anything about pedophilia? He didn't.

You didn't. You don't see scriptures that specifically address those things. But what our Lord did concerning children, for example, he spoke about never harming a child.

And what would be the consequence of doing so? And for people that try to, again, just just put out this rhetoric about Jesus didn't speak of this or Jesus didn't speak of that. Jesus is God. Jesus is God in the flesh. And the Bible, the entire Bible is the word of God. So everything written in the Bible is the word of Jesus.

And so just because he didn't say it and it is not recorded in the scriptures during his time on Earth, that doesn't mean that he did not address it. But what we find is that again, as I said, the decline of the impact and influence of Christianity on society because we see the sugar coating that is going on. And the Bible says that this is because in the last days, people would become unholy. That's talking about people that are claiming to be in the church, that they would become unholy. It says they would be lovers of what? Selves, lovers of their own desires.

They would be those who are having a form of godliness, but denying his power, denying the things that God calls sin. And we see that taking place. And it is my desire. It is my urging for so many who are doing this to turn away and to turn back to God, because he said that in the last days, these times would come and we need to warn of what the consequence will be. So we're going to take a short break, but please don't go away.

We're going to come back with more concerning perilous times in the last days. You are tuned into the God First program. You are listening to Brian C. Thomas on God First. For more of Brian's teachings, please visit Godfirst.org to browse our extensive library of material. There you will find devotionals, blogs, articles and audio messages available as MP3 downloads on various topics such as salvation, Bible prophecy, marriage and the significance of Lesson Israel.

Just to name a few. You can also sign up for our monthly newsletter and visit our Web store. So please visit us at Godfirst.org. Now let's return to the conclusion of today's message. Welcome back to the program.

My name is Brian Thomas. And today we are looking at perilous times that the Bible foretold would happen in the last days. And before the break, we were listening to a pastor who was trying to justify support of a political figure by sugarcoating and watering down sin.

That is exactly what he was doing. And when we see that happening, it is what the world also is doing in which the world is rebelling against the Christian way. The world is rebelling against what the Bible says, what God's word clearly says is sin.

And we see that in so many aspects of life. We always hear people talk about tolerance today. But it is those who are in rebellion to God who are those who are most intolerant because they don't tolerate God's way. They don't tolerate God's word.

They don't tolerate the way of the Christian. And so we are here to preach God's word, as the scripture says, in season and out of season, whether it's convenient or inconvenient. We are to preach the word of God. And when we look at the world and the things that are happening. Folks, we need to wake up because the scripture tells us that these things are signs to look for what would take place. We see things happening economically worldwide that the Bible says is going to set the stage for a universal economic system.

And we see that happening right before our eyes. But you can go into a number of churches today and you'd never hear a word said about it from the pulpit. You you you see things that are taking place in which the hostility towards Christians is growing and growing and growing. And yet you do not hear anything from some pulpits on these topics.

And unfortunately, when we turn to pastors, there's so many are looking to pastors for direction rather than speaking what thus says the Lord, the Bible, what God says, how to handle these things instead. It seems as though they're more concerned about pop culture. The more concerned about issues of equality, the more concerned about being woke. They're more concerned about all of these things that in the grand scheme of things are deceptions of the devil. And I'm not at all here to say you ignore the topic of racism. Racism is not of God. And we should always stand against racism no matter what. But what we are finding in our society is that the devil is deceiving people.

He's he's trying to get people convinced that racism exists when it doesn't and he's using it to divide us. And again, rather than so many in the church being discerning of the devil's ways and transcending his tricks, instead they're falling forward, they're falling right into his trap. And so it is my desire that we discern the signs of the times. So I want to share another clip with you. This is a report from WRAL. And you'll hear in it a short interview from the pastor at Kingdom Life Church in Garner, North Carolina. It's Pastor Willie Robinson. So this is from this past weekend when we had a snowstorm. So I want you to listen to what this pastor had to say in clip two.

Yalina Kingdom Life Church here in Garner is one of the dozens of churches that has either decided to close or remain virtual. One of the reasons why. Take a look. These conditions are not great. You can see some ice, some slush. Certainly do not want to be out driving on these roads. Most of the snow in our area is now frozen and roads are slick. It's dangerous. It's dangerous to ask someone to come to a church service and their lives can be at risk.

Three hundred and forty religious organizations total interviewing area closed their doors for service, including eight in Garner. Pastor Willie Robinson at Kingdom Life Church says they've been virtual since last March because of the pandemic. Friday night storm and current conditions is even more of a reason to stay virtual.

There's not so much ice on the road. I would never absolutely put our folks in danger and put anyone for that. For that. For that matter, I would never put anyone in harm's danger. It's not safe.

Just not safe to do it. He says by bringing his services online, he's found people have been more prone to participating because they don't have to get dressed. They don't have to get a cup of coffee. They can sit right there and they can enjoy the service right from the comfort of their home. He says the ability to handle adjustments is what makes his ministry and his community great.

We're getting ahead of the adjustments and we're moving with it and we're actually leading in this change of adjustments in this particular season. And the church here has service every Sunday at 11 a.m. online. You can watch on Facebook from the comfort of your own home. Nice and warm. OK, so let me just say up front that I do not advocate for anyone to travel when conditions are not safe. I'm not advocating getting out on the road in the middle of a a category four hurricane or when there's an inch of ice on the roads.

I'm not advocating for that. But when you listen to this pastor, you heard him say, well, when people stay home, they don't have to get dressed for church. They can get a cup of coffee.

They can enjoy from the comfort of their own home. And he was speaking again, not just from this snowstorm that we had. And let me just share this for anyone who who may be outside of our area in North Carolina.

And I'm sure some of you up north will probably get a laugh out of this. But we had a snow that came in that was about two to four inches throughout the area. And it doesn't take much here for for us to have traffic problems simply because we we don't have the equipment, the manpower to keep the roads clear because we just don't get snow that often. And what happened is that on a Friday night, we had a snow to come in.

And this report was on the following Saturday evening. So this pastor is saying is just too dangerous. You're not going to ask people to to get out and drive in those conditions. But you also heard him say that, well, they were also virtual throughout this this time because of covid. But when I when I listen to pastors and when I see so many churches that just so quickly and easily shut down service, because of a few inches of snow, I then looked at on the same news report. They were showing a basketball game, the highlights from Duke and North Carolina State, which are in the same area. They had home basketball games on the Saturday afternoon, right after the snow came in.

On that Friday night, as the snow was coming in, the Carolina Hurricanes, the hockey team, they held a home game. And well, the people were there, the fans were there. And it made me think to myself about how the world is so dedicated to their calls. They are committed.

They're they are going to follow what it is that they hold important. And I don't advocate for for holding sports to this higher standard or this higher priority. I enjoy sports and I watch sports. I go to games. I'm not anti sport, but it has its place in life.

But I look at that and I say, why is it that sports can be so committed to their calls, but professing Christians not be committed to our calls, which is serving and worshiping our Lord? Because that Sunday following the snow, the forecast was for the temperature to be in the mid 40s. It was sunny that day. And so it didn't take long for the sun to to heat up the road where where the melted snow had had frozen overnight in the roads were icy. So it didn't take long for the roads to get in good condition again. And like my church, we just delayed the service to noon. We didn't cancel the entire day because by noon the roads were good. It was it was fine to go out and travel. And we oh, man, did we have church.

We had such a joyous time in worshiping the Lord. But why is it that churches are so quick to cancel? Why? Why do you have to cancel the entire day? Again, I'm not advocating get out there at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m. when when the roads were still icy because of the the sun having not came up.

But but why is it that you couldn't just delay the start of service? You have an entire day to do so. But, you know, it seems like we're in a time in which professing Christians are so quick to fold the tent and to say we can't do it. But in the world sports, they do everything in their power to say we're going to keep the tent up. We're going to make sure we have this game.

We're going to make sure we have this entertainment. And I think to myself, what does that say to God? How does that make God feel?

When when the world is so committed and so willing to to go to the extreme to make sure that their cause is done. But the church so easily folds. I was even watching a game in which at kickoff it was in Green Bay. It was 12 degrees with a two degree windshield and it was snowing in the stadium was packed with tens of thousands of fans.

And it even began to snow when they were there cheering. A verse that I've shared probably more times in the last two years than I've shared all my life is Hebrews Chapter 10, verses 24 through 25. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Folks, the day that is approaching is the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, as you see the day approaching, do not fail to gather.

But instead, you should have even more of a desire to gather because you see us getting near to the time. But it seems as though instead we are seeing so many which the Bible foretells would happen. It says there would be a great falling away, a great apostasy. It says that people would be lovers of pleasure. And that is why we see the world so committed to going to a game for entertainment, as opposed to going to church and worship our Lord, because we are lovers of pleasure. The world is lovers of pleasure and so many in the church has fallen to it.

So I don't want to encourage you folks that for the remnants. Don't get discouraged, don't grow weary, and let's continue to reach out to those who don't seem to be aware of these signs. But we should be excited about the coming of our great Lord because he said that perilous times would come. But he said, when you see all these things begin to happen, to look up and watch because your redemption draws near. And that redemption is the coming of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And I'm excited about it.

Well, folks, we are all out of time. I want to thank you for joining me this week. Please come back next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel until the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever.

Amen. You've been listening to the Bible teacher, Brian C. Thomas, founder and president of God First. Brian and God first reserve all copyright protection under applicable law. Our copyright policy is available at our Web site, God first dot org. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.