Hey, that's right. We're in the book of what, Kevin? Revelation. He's on the call. That's right. We always start off with a howdy ho. And that's right. Terry today is not any different. We're going to say howdy ho to this gentleman. This is Patrick Snow all the way from Wyoming. And he is Bobby Ray's brother and Susie Hale's cousin. And they're pretty tight. Yes, the best I can come up with, man. This was for sure beat last week if you were here. But that's right, Patrick Snow, he's a great guy and he came across upon a countdown study and God used that to bless him. And it's kind of neat, he's not just again tuned into the study, but he's sharing it with the people around him. And his witnessing field up there in Wyoming, as you can see there with that incredible backdrop there, he's a welder for a pipeline. And so he brings in, with the media, he brings in a CD and a DVD player in his truck. And so he's witnessing to the other pipeline welders in his area making the most of it. And he had kind of a neat connection. It turns out that his grandfather was a pastor as well, and his grandfather's favorite passion to teach on is prophecy. And so he finally got hooked on to that, and he said it was great. He says, I was never really able to connect with my grandfather, but now that's all we talk about. And so it's kind of a neat thing, a neat ministry that he's doing up there in Wyoming. I think he shared that the saying in Wyoming is, hey, we're glad you're here, but we don't care what in the world you did, where you came from. So anyway, but they're really friendly up there, apparently. No nonsense, people. But that's why we're going to say a big old howdy ho to Patrick Snow from Wyoming on the count of one, two, three. All righty, hey, that's right, and we always start off with a current topic. Now, believe it or not, we are back on the issue, not of the Mark of the Beast from the Antichrist system, but we are on the Antichrist himself. Specifically, we're going to take a look at the image factor. That's right, open your Bibles again to the text we saw last week, Revelation chapter 13, Revelation chapter 13. If you find the dictionary, what do you do? Hang on, that's right, Revelation chapter 13, we're going to take a look at verse 11 through 15, and we're going to talk about this aspect. Now we've talked about, and what we're going to see in the text is the false prophet, his cohort, he gets to do some false miracles and he dupes the whole world into worshiping the Antichrist. We've talked about how ultimately he's going to bring in a system with this mark in the hand or the forehead so that you cannot buy yourself. We've talked about that many times. But this, I don't get to cover too often, and we'll cover it again today. Praise God, I'm excited about it. This issue with the image, the image of the Antichrist, because that's right in the middle of the mark of the beast. It's not just duping people, it's not just the mark issue, but something about this image coming to life. Let's take a look at the text of what's going on here and see if we're really close to this being pulled off in our world today. Revelation chapter 13 verse 11 says this, Then I saw another beast, coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, the false prophet, and he spoke like a dragon, i.e. Satan, defined in chapter 12. He exercised all authority of the first beast, the Antichrist, on his behalf. And he made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, the Antichrist, whose fatal wound had been healed. How did he do that? Well, the first thing he did is he duped people. He performed these great miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. He's got to be right? No, we saw it before. You can do that with modern technology. The harp technology is just one of them. He says that because of these signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, the Antichrist, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth. Now before you get to the mark of the beast, what's the first thing he does after that great deception? He ordered them to set up a what? an image in honor of the beast Antichrist who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. He was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast so that it could what? It could speak and it could what? It could call all who refused to worship the image of the Antichrist to be what? to be killed. Praise God, you're on the ball as always, okay? But praise God, here's the point. We have no signs on the planet, folks, of some image, some image thing, first of all, coming to life, as it will. We have no signs of an image coming to life and speaking to us, letting alone making us worship this image or we're gonna die, right? We've talked about before with the three-dimensional image things that's going on, how they could beam in a three-dimensional image of somebody live anywhere around the world. We saw that with the last election. Remember that? But folks, what I'm about to share with you is not make-believe, this isn't like, this is where they're going. This is happening right now today. This is how far the technology has come with images. It's actual, live, personal interaction in real time. His name is Milo. When you watch this, think of a possible interaction with the Antichrist. Here's his image. Watch this. I'd like you to meet a boy called Milo. He's a character He can recognize us, he can recognize our faces, he can recognize our voices, he can recognize emotions in us. And this is Claire, she's going to introduce you to Milo. Hi Milo, how are you doing? Hi Claire, you okay? Actually I'm a bit nervous. You? Nervous? I don't believe it. This is the first time that thousands of people are going to see this. Thousands of people? Here we're seeing Claire being recognized. And the emotion in Claire's voice being recognised. And that emotion reflecting in Milo's face. Those are all being seen for the first time. So listen, I was thinking today you should let me beat you at football again. That is if you finished your homework. You have finished your school project. What happened there is that Claire knew Milo so well, she knew when he was worried about something. The head was down, he wasn't looking at the camera so much, and this is about you meeting a character, a person. Well, why don't I help you with yours? Then yours will be brilliant. All right. I could just try to catch some fish. Draw some pictures in my journal. Maybe I'll do okay this time. I think that's a good idea. Lift off! Don't know till I try, do I? Exactly. See? I've got everything we need. Well, great. Let's get started, then. You've got to put these goggles on. Goggles? Put them on like this. OK. What? Like that? Claire has been thrown a pair of goggles. Notice what she did. This wasn't acted. She felt the need to reach down for those goggles. Now, everybody, every single person that has experienced this, reaches down. Because they feel so connected to Milo's world. Cool. So what are we doing? Back to town at the edge? Come on. Put your hands in. It's not too cold. Ha! I bet the priests think you're a monster. Cheeky! There Claire is, in Milo's world. She's in that pond. Every hand movement is being recognised. Being able to touch fish, being able to swish the water with her hand. Everyone who's experienced it, their hairs are standing up on the back of their head. Now, what's about to happen is some real magic. Well, you're good at drawing. They're only fish, but they're trickier than you think. Well, here, I'll have a go. Right. I'm going to do a body, and a tail, the big fin, and a smiley face. There we go. What do you think? Look at what just happened. Claire drew a picture on a piece of paper. The piece of paper was held up to Milo, Natal recognized the piece of paper, scanned the piece of paper in, Milo looked at that piece of paper, recognized the shape, recognized the color, and able to get on with his project. This is true technology that science fiction has not even written about. And this works today. Not even scripted. That wasn't play acting, like, let's rehearse the interaction. That was actually live. And 2000 years ago, the Bible said a false prophet is not only going to come on the scene and do people with his fire coming down from heaven. We see the technology for that. But he'd be able to before he gives the mark of the beast, he's going to be able to give life to this image thing and put yourself in John's position. He's like, how do I describe this? This this image is going to come to life. It's going to speak, interact with people, and then it's going to cause them. If you don't worship me, you'll die. And maybe that's it. If he doesn't see you, why? Worshipping him. You're dead. Man, good thing we don't have that technology on the way. Yeah, that's a nervous laughter. Praise God. We're in the book of Revelation. That's right. And Revelation chapter. Wow, is it getting close or what, man? Everything is falling into place. Revelation chapter 3. And that should cause excitement. Let's take a look. Revelation chapter 3. And let's read verses 1 through 3. Man, we're cooking now. Woo-hoo! Right on, Steve. Calm down. That's right. Revelation chapter 3, verses 1 through 3. Here's what it says. To the church of Sardis, Jesus Christ speaketh. He says to the angel of the church in Sardis, here's what you need to write. These are the words in a hymn. Jesus Christ who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds, church. You got this reputation of being alive. But you are dead wake up number one Strengthen what remains is about to die because I've not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God to Remember therefore what you've received and heard and three obey and repent But here's the point if you do not wake up if you do not wake up I'll say the three times for emphasis if you do not wake up. I Jesus speaking I'm gonna come upon you church like a thief and in fact get this You're not even going to know at what time I'm going to come to you. Bang! The hammer's coming down. Now, folks, what we've been seeing, obviously, every single time, the theme of this particular church is it is flat-out dead, flat-out stinky dead. But because Jesus Christ, and they're playing games, saving their lives, they've got this reputation. He says, are you kidding me? We've been seen in the creek every single time. It literally says, you exist every single day as a dead, rotten, stinking corpse. It's bad news city, man. You don't want to emulate this church, this aspect. You want to be the faithful few? We'll get to that, Lord willing, next time. But we're not there yet. Okay? And because Jesus cares for His church, it's His church, He died on the cross for His church, which means a gathering of people called out of this wicked world system to live for Him for the world to come. Hello. Okay? He cares about Him. And so He's trying to inject If you will, we use that as an analogy, the steroids, the six needles into this church, bang! To bring them back to life. And of course it's going to hurt, that doesn't feel good, needles in your chest. But he's trying to save this church's life, okay? And the first needle we already saw, he jams into this dead church, as he is flat out aware of their deadness. Isn't that the funny game we play? As if God can't see in the dark? As if he doesn't know what's going on. You're not hiding anything from him. Hello. The second needle we saw, he jams into this dead church. He steroids, the spiritual steroids, a shot of them, to bring them back to life. And it's how to fix their deadness. This is what is so amazing. You talk about being merciful. After all God has done for you and I, and we still have the audacity to backslide, to get all worldly, to go back to idolatry. Are you kidding me? I mean, come on. And then, You would think he'd nuke us on the spot, but not God. He is merciful. Get this. He doesn't have to do this, but he does. He shows us a three-step, easy, simple plan. That's right, how to get out of your deadness. It's incredible, Kevin. He tells us, number one, you need to wake up and strengthen. Number two, you need to remember, therefore. That's where we were last week. And number three, you need to obey and repent now. That's it. If you do that, the deadness is gone. This is awesome. This is greatness from Jesus. Praise God. There is finally hope on the horizon. The church is turned around! We're getting out of this goofball mess, right? Woo-hoo! And that's what we saw as the problem. We are rejecting His mercy. We refuse to do, even in the American church, folks, what Jesus says to do to fix our deadness. This is why our country continues to go down the tubes. This is why things are so sick and messed up, and it seems like there is no turnaround. This is why even in the church, it seems so dead, oftentimes, because we reject His mercy. We refuse to do His three simple, easy-step plan, which is just wake up and strengthen, which is remember all the good things. We've been insiders for so long, I've even forgotten how many studies. All of this to me. Oh, it's merciful, isn't it? He tells us how to get out of this goofball mess after all he's done, and we still do this, we end up in a dead position. Mercy is over. He ain't gonna let this go on forever. He holds us accountable. The third needle Jesus jams into the church. This is our text today, folks, to bring him back to life is he gives them the penalty now. There is a penalty for rejecting His mercy. He gives them the penalty for not fixing. He just gave you a solution for not fixing your deadness. That's what the verse says there, folks. Verse 3b there in chapter 3. He says, but if you do not wake up. I'm not making this up. This is from Jesus. He says, I'm going to come like a thief and you're not going to know what time I'm going to come to you. Literally in the Greek says this, if you Christian should in no wise wake up and listen, I will sneak up. I will sneak up on you as a thief, and you should in no wise know what hour I'm going to sneak up on you. And so what Jesus in a nutshell, folks, is doing here, what I see in the text here, is He's given this church now the consequences for refusing to repent of their deadness. They need to realize the importance of what's going on. They need to realize there is a price to pay if you reject His mercy and refuse to do what He says to do to fix the problem. I can't believe He even, if you will, stooped down and gave us a solution. You still want to reject it? Guilty time. This is judgment time here from Jesus Christ, folks. This is mercy is over. The solutions are done. He said all he could say. What else does he have to say? And we still don't get it. And we still refuse to do it. He does not mess around. This is serious stuff. Why? Because God does not want a dead church. How many times does he have to say his church is to be a beautiful bride? Who's excited? Preacher, bro, I'll get you up here. But anyway, that's right. Right. He was just excited. I mean, ladies, I hope I'm not setting you up. Remember the day when you got married? OK. All right, we better not go there. Remember that? Remember the excitement? You finally made it, man! Anybody, when you were like, I have to counsel this all the time with you, adults in the premarital counseling, it's like, hey, listen, just hang on there. It's always the same story. Mike, you know, it's like three months before we're getting ready to start our premarital counseling, they're in that happy googly mode, hey, I just love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. And you're sitting there as an adult, you look that look in the eye. Have you ever, have you ever had that when adults smile at you when you make the news that you're getting married? It's really not because they care about you. Ed, Ed, don't, it's on video. They know what's coming. Anyway, so you prepare the best you can. I tell him, I said, hey, I said, sorry to burst your little bubble here, but you're going to start fighting big time before you get married because all this stress and stuff. It's OK, you'll make it, right? You guys know what I'm talking about. You'll make it, you'll make it. I'm not pointing fingers. But anyway, right? And it's the same thing. But you finally get there. At least you made it to the day. And at least it's exciting. I mean, you come, you're sitting there, you come down. I mean, we do this all the time, right? It's almost inscripted. Everybody knows what to do. When the door is open and the party, the bridal party's up here, the door is open. And what's the first thing everybody does? They look, they do two things. They look at the bride, right? And smile and they go, oh, it's so exciting. And then what's the next thing you do? They look at the groom to see his response. If he hasn't passed out right now, seriously, why is that? And he's all up there, you know, it's not right here. Why? Why would God, why would Jesus say it's hammer time? We are the bride of Jesus Christ. Our groom is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, the master of the universe. We deserve to burn and go straight to hell, every one of us, myself included. But he died on the cross behind this ring, not that literal, unless figuratively. And we haven't even had the marriage supper, the lamb yet. We're headed for a marriage ceremony. Can you imagine how the groom would feel if the doors were open and she had to be dragged in here? Whining, complaining, all that stupid, silly little blah. That's what a church is doing when it's dead in Jesus Christ. Because we are headed for a marriage ceremony. And he wants his bride. Shouldn't she be excited? Woo-hoo! Can't wait to get there, man! Woo! Praise God! What do I gotta do in these preparations? I can't wait for this ceremony! That's the church that Jesus wants, and that's not what this church is doing! It's a rotten, stinking advertisement! They're a dead, rotten, stinking corpse, not a beautiful, sweet-smelling bride! Men, how many of you would like it if it was time of your wedding day, and they had to usher in a corpse for you to marry? Please say no. Thank you, men. That's what's going on here. It's like, give me a break. No wonder he's saying this, even though he's given us time to repent. That's what's so amazing. OK, you're acting like you've got to be dragged into your marriage ceremony. You could give a rip about Jesus. And he says, on the way that you're doing that, he says, let me before you're almost here, let me show you how to fix it. You talk about mercy. And yet when he even stoops down and does that, That's a flavor of what's going on here. When you refuse to do what he says to do, these three easy simple steps, that's right. You're going to get it by Jesus Christ himself. And it's nobody to blame but you. And when it happens, you're not going to have a stinking clue. It's judgment time, that's what he says. And you will not know at what time I will come to you. Literally, you shouldn't. No lies, no. I'm not even going to give you a heads up. I've had it. I'm going to sneak up on you. And this is a loaded statement, man. It should have totally drove the point home for Sardis, because that's exactly what happened to Sardis in history. Somebody snuck up on him and destroyed him in an instant. Let's take a look at that. Now, one of the coolest things about ancient Sardis is not this temple to Artemis. It's what they call the Acropolis. And I want to head up to that little hill right there to take a look at it. Just behind the ruins of ancient Sardis is a high outcropping overlooking the whole region, the Acropolis of ancient Sardis. It was there in the year 547 BC that historians say the decisive showdown between the rich Croesus and Cyrus, king of the Persians, took place. All right. Well, I finally made it up to the top of that little hill, which you see behind me. Those ruins I was just in. Now, on this side of me, what you have behind me on this side, is the Acropolis of ancient Sardis. This was the site of King Croesus' last stand. In order to save his own skin, he and his soldiers retreated behind a fortified citadel on top of the Acropolis, hoping that the height advantage would give them the upper hand against the Persians down below. Cyrus, King of the Persians, offered a reward to anyone of his soldiers who could find a way to the top of that mountain to defeat King Croesus and his army. One did just that. They saw a helmet fall from the top of the Acropolis all the way down to the ground. When one of Cyrus's Persian soldiers watched one of King Croesus' soldiers climb all the way down and get the helmet, he watched how he got back up. The way to the top and the point of attack had been discovered. The seemingly impregnable citadel was doomed. The Persians climbed to the top, slaughtered the Lydian army, and Sardis was easily taken by Cyrus. Pay attention. This is what's really cool. That didn't just happen once historically. I was with Cyrus, OK? That didn't just happen once historically with Sardis. Listen to this, folks. When somebody snuck up on him and took him out unexpectedly. You can't get us. We're just fine on the top of this hill. Boom, you're dead. You're taken out, you're gone. It happened three times. In the Southern Hebrew, yes. Three times. First it was Cyrus. That was the first time you just saw. I believe it was about 300 years later. Antiochus the Great did it again the same way. And then later the Romans did it a third time. Here's my whole point when I looked at this. I'm going, come on, can't you learn your lesson? How many times do you have? And this is what's so cool about this text. This is what Jesus is saying to this church. You talk about bringing the point home. He is not messing around. He is saying this, if you want to keep on living, church is a dead seeking bride. If you, if you, I'm going to come and I'm going to take you out. When you listen, least expect it like a thief in the night. This is wild. That's where this biblical text comes from. The phrase thief in the night. It comes from the historical downfall of Sardis. When Cyrus came, he came as a thief in the night. When Antiochus the Great came, he was a thief in the night. When the Romans took you the third time, he was a thief in the night. That's where we get that biblical phrase. And that's what Jesus is using. It became a euphemism to be careful. Wake up. Watch out. You better not be arrogant. You better not think like Sardis that nothing could ever happen to you. Oh, they can't touch us here. Because if you do, you better watch out. Just like that, when you least expect it, some destruction can come upon you, just like a thief in the night, Sardis. Listen. That's exactly what Jesus said to this church in Sardis. Do you think they caught on to what he was trying to say? You better be careful, church. You better not be arrogant, church. You better not think that somehow you got this false insecurity that nothing can ever happen to you, Church. Are you kidding me? If Sardis or we, it's applicable today, folks, refuse to do what he says to do, if we keep on rejecting his mercy like a thief in the night, we're all gonna get it, folks. They should have known better, and so should we. It happened to them three different times. We serve the same God. We too are church as well. And we too, folks, should know better not to mess around with the false sense of security and play on the grace of God. How many times do we have to be warned? In the final countdown study, we had ten of them. Ten warnings, the Jewish people, modern technology, worldwide upheaval, the rise of falsehood, the rise of wickedness, the rise of apostasy, a one world religion, a one world government, a one world economy, and the mark of the beast, all of which is happening right now. Here's the point. How many stinking signs does he have to give us to wake us up from our deadness? Are we really that arrogant? They had three warnings and I set you up on purpose, folks. This is applicable to me, too. They have three warnings. Oh, they I can't believe it. The three words are stupid. We've had 10. And we're still playing games. Do we not realize the seriousness of the situation we're in today? This is about today. This is not Sardis. This is about now. And is it applicable to them? Is it applicable to us today? John MacArthur says this, whether you're talking about Matthew 24, Luke 12, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Peter 3, Revelation 16, he says every time that picture of Jesus coming like a thief is used, it always carries, always carries the idea that the thief, in this case Jesus, comes to do harm. He comes to inflict pain. He comes to destroy. Jesus even said the thief comes but to destroy. He says, Jesus speaking, MacArthur says, I'm going to come and destroy you, church. That's what he's saying. He says, I don't think this is necessarily a direct reference to the second coming of Christ. I think it's an indirect one. I think it is a direct statement of the Lord's part to Sardis. And if you people listen, here's the applicable message. If you people don't have a revival, Jesus says, I'm going to come and I'm going to destroy you and you're not going know when I'm coming, because I'm going to come like a thief comes. And believe me, when thieves come, they don't send you a notice when they arrive. They don't warn you. But when they get there, they do you harm. And he says, certainly this can be extrapolated to be a warning to all dead churches that Jesus is coming. And when he comes at the time of his return in judgment glory, he is going to wreak havoc in the dead church. And he says, the judgment that falls on those people, he says, if I read my Bible right, will be more severe than those who did not identify themselves with a Christian. Now, how many guys would say that's kind of a serious situation? Yeah. And so the lesson is obvious, man. Hey, there's one thing you want to do. You don't want to do, man. I mean, you can make it, you can blow it. You can be serving communion and dump that grape juice all over somebody. That's pretty bad. Anybody ever do that? It's good, you know, whatever. You can do all kinds of things wrong, but one thing you don't ever want to do is be a dead Christian. Ever. Man, are you playing with fire when that happens? Jesus wants a bride, he's excited. He wants a bride, he's alive, he's ready when he comes back. And that's exactly folks, this is awesome. That's exactly what I see him doing again out of mercy, man. He doesn't have to do this. In Matthew chapter 25. Matthew 24, that's where we got the 10 warnings, basically, by large. Huh? Matthew 24, he tells us, how can you know? We don't know the day nor the hour. How do you know when it's getting close? Here's a head shot. Here's a warning when you know it's close. There should never be a time when you're goofing off, and you're walking with Jesus Christ. You should never go, how much can I do, not to for God, and somehow still be a Christian. You should never have that attitude. But man, there's never a time you should goof off. It's when you start seeing these signs, That's what we talked about, folks. But here's the whole point. Right after that, the whole chapter of Matthew 25 is dedicated to three parables. Listen, to indicate when somebody is real and when somebody's a fake, those who profess to belong to him in the house of God. and those who really aren't. This is so merciful of God. So I just had three warnings. We've had 10 with the final countdown. Today we're going to look at three. If you're hooked on math, we're going to have 13 warnings. How much more does God got to do before we wake up? Open your Bibles to Matthew 25. Let's take a look at those warnings. How do you know? How do you know when a person's being a phony dead believer, playing games with God, as if you can fool him? According to Matthew 25. There's three things that he's gonna point out here, folks, and if you're in any one of these three, hello, hopefully it's not even all three, but any one of them, you better take heed and morning. And the first thing he says, here's a sign to indicate that you don't belong to him. Oh, you could be around other people, you could have this reputation, you could have the right clothes on, you could do all this great stuff, but if you don't belong to him, here's a sign, it's when you don't look for Jesus. What? Yeah, you can give a rib about him coming back. I didn't say that. Matthew chapter 25 is where we're going to be. We're going to read the first parable, Matthew 25. We're going to read verses one through 13. Let's take a look at the first one. The first warning that he gives you and I say the parable of the ten virgins. OK, he says at that time, the kingdom of heaven is going to be like this. Ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. You think you'd be excited, right? Well, let's keep going. Five of them were what? foolish, okay, and five were wise. And the foolish ones, they took their lamps, but they did not take any oil with them. But the wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a what? Long time in coming. How many times are you going to say he's coming back? I haven't seen him in every single generation. And they all became drowsy and fell asleep. At midnight the cry rang out, here's the bridegroom! Woohoo! He's here! Yeah! Come on out and meet him! Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish ones, oops, weren't ready, said to the wives, uh, give us some of your oil. Our lamps are going out. No, they replied, there may not be enough for both of us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves. But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. It's too late. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet and the door was locked. Later, the others came, sir, sir, come on, man. We were part of the bridal party, weren't we? Open the door for us. But he replied, I tell you the truth, I don't know you. So what's the point? Keep what? Watch, keep looking. Because you don't know the day or the hour. The first thing that's really cool about this text, folks, is the word, they're foolish. You talk about strong in the Greek day. This is Jesus speaking here. It's morass. Can anybody guess what English word we get from morass? Moron. Now that's a much bigger singer than just foolish. Oh, you just made an unfortunate decision. No, you're acting like a moron. That's what he said, right? These five ladies weren't just making a bad decision. She said they were acting like total morons. And so the applicable question to me is this, whoa, whoa, wait a second here. That's not a good goal in the Christian life. Let's be morons. Turn to somebody and say, let's be a moron. Please don't. I can't believe you just said that. Here's the point. What in the world did these ladies do to have Jesus Christ call them morons? Right? That's the obvious point of attack. It's simple, folks. They were not looking for his return. Oh, you can hear him now. He's taking longer than what they expected. How many generations, Christians, do you keep talking about the return of Christ? How many times are we talking about it here in the last four and a half years? You can see the same attitude building these ladies. And so what did they do? They started to goof off. They weren't taking it seriously anymore. They started living for themselves. If it was taking longer, they started to get distracted. And now, they were no longer prepared for His return! That's dumb! That's goofy! That's being a moron! But praise God, we don't do that today, right? Man, there's no sign of us being a bunch of morons. We're always looking for Jesus to come back. We're always ready. We're always studying and returning. How about studying about the return of Christ? We're always on guard. We're still stinking excited, man, because it could be wedding time any moment, right? No. Let's be honest. Here's what's going on in the American church. How many churches today are even teaching on Bible prophecy? How many churches are even talking about the return of Jesus Christ? Preparing their people to be looking for him and be ready. To be wise, not a moron. Let's bring it back down. It's not only a pulpit problem, it's a personal problem. How many Christians are excited about Bible prophecy? How many Christians even want to hear about it? So here's what you hear, by and large, the American church. Oh, come on, Pastor! Not Bible prophecy! What are you trying to do? Scare me? I've had a hard week. I didn't come for that. Hey, come on, come on. Can we talk about something more relevant here? What does that got to do with me on this one? Hey, I'm going to leave if you start teaching all that stuff. Really? Because you're being taught, according to the Word of God, how not to act like a moron? You're going to leave? Isn't that what Jesus said? I'm not making this up. Isn't that what he said? If you're not looking for his return, if you could give a rip about his return, if you're persecuting, making fun of those who are excited about his return and preparing for the return, the Bible says, Jesus says, hey, you're acting like a moron. You might not want to do that. Why? Because it might be a sign you are going to be shut out when he does come back like a thief in the night. You're not even going to have a clue when it happens. Like these people. Let's watch again. Jesus Christ is coming back for His Church. The Bible says in Matthew 24, verse 42, Watch therefore, for you do not know the hour your Lord is coming. I want you to know, Church, that Jesus Christ could come this month. Or He might come next week. I get you every time, does it? I mean, guys jumped. Yeah, everybody. That's really going to happen. There's going to be churches like that, and I would agree based on Sardis's text, the few you need to do exactly that and flip those numbers around, there's going to be a few. Who are going the bulk of the pews are going to be full. That's going to happen. Oh, come on. Nobody. Yes, it is. And it's going to happen when you least expect it, like a thief in the night. Maybe this is what that guy was. Let's continue on. Maybe this is what that guy was after he was like, I've been left behind. I was here the whole time. Maybe this is what came out of his mouth next. Sir. Sir. Open the door for me. I went to church services, come on, I was sitting here doing the sermon. I came to Sunday school once in a while. I had the right clothes on, I drove the right car. Come on, let me in. And Jesus said, I tell you the truth, I don't know you. Why? Because the proof is in the pudding. You're a fake, you're a phony. You weren't looking for me. You could give a rip about my return. You didn't want to talk about nothing but you, you, you, when it was about me. Therefore, keep watch. Keep looking. Because you don't know the day nor the hour. And if that's you today, you better be careful. How far can you push it? I don't know. But is that a chance you really want to take? You could give a rip about Jesus and His return when that's the most exciting thing. That's what we're saved for. That's your first sign, your first warning. The second one is this, according to Matthew 25, is not only when you don't look for Jesus. You can't fool him, Sardis! It's when you don't live for Jesus. That's the proof in the pudding. That's how you know somebody's fake. I didn't say that. He did. Open your Bibles again to Matthew 25. Okay. Matthew 25. Let's take a look now at the next parable of the servants. 14 to 30. Let's take a look. Here's what he says, this again, it's going to be the same thing in case the first one didn't get you. Here's another one. He says this, he says right here in the text, he says, again, it's going to be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. And the one who gave five talents of money to the other two talents and another one, one talent, each according to his abilities, not giving you more than I didn't know is to your ability. And then he went on to his journey. And the man who had received the five talents went at once. Man, he didn't mess around. He put his money to work and he gained five more. And so also the woman with two talents gained two more. But the man who had received one talent... Come on, man! He just had one! You went off, you dug a hole in the ground, and you hid your master's money. Common theme. After a long time... We've been saying this return to Jesus for a long time now, right? Two thousand years. After a long time, the master of the servants returned finally. And he settled the accounts with them. And the man who had received the five talents brought the other five. Master, you've entrusted me with five talents. See, I've gained five more. And the master replied all the words we want to hear, right? Well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things. Man, I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Come on, share your master's happiness. Well, the man with two talents, he also answered, Master, you can trust me with two talents, you see, I've gained two more. And his master replied to him, well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful with a few things, I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Come on, party time. Come on and share your master's happiness. The man who received only one talent, he came and said, Master, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you've not sown and gathering where you've not scattered seed. And so I was afraid, I went and I hid your talent in the ground. See, here's what belongs to you, nothing to show for his life. His master replied, You wicked, lazy servant. What did Jesus just say? You wicked, lazy servant. So you knew I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not gathered seed. Well then, you should at least put my money on deposit with the bankers so that in return I would have received it back with interest. There should be something to show! Take the talent from him, give it to the ones who've got ten talents, for everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have even what he has is going to be taken from him. Listen, and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there's going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's the key phrase there, folks. What and where is weeping and gnashing of teeth? Hell. So obviously it's common sense. These are people who are claiming to belong to Jesus, Christians, if you will, but they're really not Christians and they end up in hell. And the reason why is because we know Christians, praise God, can't go to hell, right? Praise God. OK, so the question is, well, man, that's the common sense, a political question today. How do you know? How do you know if somebody is going to have that shocking reality? How do you know if somebody is really a Christian or they're really a fake Christian, just acting like a Christian and they're actually going to hell? What was the acid test? I'm not making this up, Jesus said this right after Matthew 24, when he gives us all the warnings. It's not just when you're not looking for Jesus. You ain't living for him either. You're living for yourself with a stinking world. Oh, he's taking longer than what he expected, right? He's got a long time, but he said. You can see how they got into this pattern. I mean, it's just, hey, they started to back off. They stopped serving Jesus. And to the point, they actually rationalized their lack of service to Him. They refused to do anything for Him. They were what? Here's a phrase, servants in name only. Praise God, we don't do that today. Tell you what, Russ, I'm so stinking glad we are always serving. We're always looking for Jesus. We're always first in line to help out the church. We're always there making the most of the deposits, the gifts that He's given us. Woo-hoo! Right? wrong. Let's really bring it home, even here at NFBC, how many of us are actively. You need to understand the context, it's not sporadic, it's continually serving Jesus Christ. How many of us are passionate about serving him? How many of us are investing these lives on a regular basis for the kingdom of God, day in, day out? No, rather what you hear and see is this, I'm retired now. It's my time. You know what? If that's your retirement plan, I don't stink and want it. My retirement plan is in a place where the streets are made of gold. And the angels are there praising God. In the fullness of His glory, I get to enjoy eternal rest and peace. That's my eternal plan as a Christian. Why would we exchange that for a pile of trash that's going to be burned up? No, you don't understand, preacher. I'm too old. It's time for those young whippersnappers. The Bible says we need you. It's you, the older, the wiser, who are to help train the younger. No wonder sometimes they get squirrely! They haven't had somebody come alongside and train them. It's all at you now. You're not finishing the race. Or no, that's just the way it is. I'm a long ways from retirement, and, you know, I'm still in pretty good shape, right? I'm dreaming. But anyway, it's just life, you know. I'd love to help out, but you know, I got to just soccer. It's got baseball. I just be your regular squeeze. Especially this time of year, they're coming back. Listen to what Jesus says to that. I'm not making this up. You read it with your own eyeballs. It is self-stinking, convicting. You wicked, lazy servant. You wicked, lazy servant. Maybe this is what you're headed for. Maybe this is what you're working or should we say not working for. This is what you're earning. Watch this. If I were to open this door right now and take you out there, And I was to show you what is described in the book of Revelation, where it talks about the wrath of God Almighty. It talks about the smoke of their torment going up forever and ever in the presence of the Lamb. If I could take you out there and I could show you a picture of the lake of fire as it's described in Revelation chapter 20, on that day when the books are open, If I could show you the many multitudes who are going to be frantically crying out, Lord, Lord. They already know something's wrong. Most of them came out of a holding place of the damned. They have been kept in chains for that day of judgment. They already know something is wrong. They are not in paradise. They already know. But it's like one last frantic plea. Lord, Lord, they're trying to reason. They're trying to find some way to reason with the Lord, to not ultimately cast them into that lake of fire. If I could take us all out there and we could look at it and we could see The judgment of the damned really looks like if you could know it the way it really is. But brethren, here's the thing, the Word of God does show us how things really are. The point is this, it's true whether I can take you out that door to look at it or not. It's true. But we don't think it's true. Because we don't believe the word of God. That says, if you are not looking for Jesus. And if you're not living for Jesus. How far can you push it? We all know we're not saved by works, praise God, amen. But he saved you unto good works. It's a logical, loving response after all he's done, right? We're going to give them a count for everything we've ever done or didn't do. You can see how these people got into this and maybe this is what these people said after they said, Lord, Lord. I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you're not sown, and gather where you haven't gathered seed, so I was afraid, man. I went out and I hit the towel on the ground, and see, here's where I belong, see. In other words, I didn't do anything for you, even though I claimed to belong to you. And his master replied, you wicked, lazy servant. So you knew I harvest where I've not sown, and gather where I've not scattered seed. Well, then you should have put my money on deposit for the bankers so that when I returned, I would have received it back with interest. In other words, you should have had something, anything. I don't care if it's five. I don't care if it's ten or two or four or one. You should have something to show. And because you didn't, what you did show is you were fake. Sardis had three practical people do that. And still get it wrong. How many warnings do we need from Jesus? Don't flirt with this. He still isn't done out of mercy. The third and final sign, according to this folks, that he gives to you and I, is this. How do you know when somebody's a phony dead believer? They're just playing games with Jesus as if he doesn't know. According to Matthew 25, it's this one. It's when you don't love others like Jesus did. What? That's what he said, Matthew 25. Turn there. How many guys are wishing you would have kept your thumb there last time? OK, three lessons for you. Keep your thumb there. Matthew 25, verse 31 through 46. Here's the final parable. Here's what he says. The sheep and the goats. When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels are with Him, man, this is an awesome time. Okay, he's going to sit on his throne and the heaven, the glory and all the nations are going to be gathered before him. He's going to separate the ponies from the reels, the people, the one from another. The shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He's going to put the sheep on his right and the goats, the fakes on his left. And then the king is going to come and say to those who were really serious about him and really look for him and look for him. Come, you are blessed by my father. Take your inheritance in the kingdom. This is my retirement prepared since the creation of the world. For I was hungry. Here's how I knew you were true to me. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me. I was in prison and you came to visit me. What? The righteous one answered, Lord, come on. We didn't see you yet. Okay. We're still here on earth. When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you, Jesus, a stranger, and invite you in and even close and close you? When did we see you taken prisoner and go visit you? And the King Jesus, he will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the one to lead to these brothers of mine, you did for me. And then he will say to those on his left, the ghosts, depart from me. You who are what? Cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not invite me in. I needed clothes and you did not clothe me. I was sick in prison and you did not look after me. And then they're going to say, come on Lord, when did we say you're hungry or thirsty or Stranger in clothes, or sicker in prison, and we didn't help you. And Jesus will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. And they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. The key verse there is verse 41. Then he will say to the goats, those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Where in the world is that? Hell. And so again, what we're seeing is he's drawn out two different groups, the fakes and the phonies, those who were saved, those who were not. And so that to me is the asking question, that's the one we need to be asking in this whole context. Well, how do you know? How do you avoid that scenario? How do you know somebody's saying they're a Christian, but they're really not? What's the context of the passage? It wasn't just when you don't look for Jesus, it wasn't when you just don't live for Jesus, but you refuse to love other people in Jesus' name, right? You know, in case you don't get it, who your neighbor is, those who are hungry and thirsty and destitute and stuck in prison. And so praise God that's such a common sense passage. That's what we're doing, right? We're always loving people like Jesus did. We're always feeding the hungry and the thirsty. We're clothing the naked. We're reaching out to strangers. We're inviting them in. We're visiting people in prison. Pastor Rich never, ever has a shortage at the Niagara Gospel Rescue. In fact, so many people have been beaten down the doors, Dave. He's had to take a stick and beat them off. Right, Pastor Rich? No. No. How many times? Sorry, it's three times in history and you still believe. Come on, you lame-o's. How many times does God say, this is basic Christianity. Love other people. Reach out to them in my name. Do what you can to share my love with them. that they might be saved. How many times does he have to say that? How many times have you sat in a church service throughout your whole Christian walk and you've been encouraged from the pulpit, now get out there! Get out there according to the Word of God and love other people like Jesus! And they might even say, Amen, preach it! But here's what really goes on when you leave the facilities. Let's take a look. It's been a great day at church. The blessings of the Lord have been plentiful. Now go and love people with the love of Jesus. you. you. you That's a dead church. Dario is here because the spirit of God moved on Lonnie Newman. And said, see that man. Give him some food. Somewhere you were here because somebody. The spirit of God moved on the heart and says, no, I'm afraid, but I've got to talk to him. I got to at least invite him to church services. I know they're hurting and they're without Jesus Christ. And you're here today because of that. That's a church that's alive. That's the church that loves like Jesus, not that stinking thing. Oh, you can hear him. You can hear those people when they drove into the grave. And stood before God. Maybe they said something like this, I don't know. Lord. Come on, man. Don't send me to hell. Prepare for the devil and his angels? Come on! When did we see you hungry or thirsty, man? I mean, come on, Jesus! When did we see a stranger in Eden Qualls or sick in prison or did unhealthy? And Jesus will reply, telling the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Depart from me, you who are cursed into eternal fire. Prepare for the devil and his angels. Why? Because the proof was in the pudding! You showed your real identity! This is the game! You weren't real! You were fake! You weren't loving other people like Jesus! That's what a real, on live, on fire, bride of Jesus Christ does! No! You snubbed your nose at them! You said they smell! They stink! They reek! They got what they deserve! Let them rot! And in the same breath, you expected God to forgive you of all your stinking, rotten, smelly sins. You hypocrite. You are not of the righteous sheep. You're a goat that's lost. And this is the point. If that's you, I don't know your heart, and I don't know how far we can push that line. I know we Christians can get off track at sometimes. How far can you do that and push the envelope? I don't know. Only God knows the heart. But if you could give a rip about looking for the return of Jesus, if you could give a rip about living for Him, And if you absolutely refuse and even snub your nose at one of the people like Jesus did, you better take warning. Maybe you're saved, maybe you're not. I don't know. But the point is this. Is that a chance you really want to take? The point of the whole chapter of Matthew 25. Is you need to be ready, because just like Sardis found out when he comes, He's coming like a thief in the night. He ain't going to tell you when. In fact, it's going to surprise you so much you don't even have a stinking clue when it happens. But by then. It will be. Too late. You need to be ready. We're closing for after this. What is causing this weather? A traffic tag being planted on a person's body to track his every movement. You will rule on that, mark my words. A chance in everybody would be the universal monetary system by accident. Because there'd be no escape from it. We've got an explosion. as americans you can feel out the way when you find someone alive from los angeles A new world order can emerge. you you Well, hi, this is Pastor Billy Crone of Niagara Frontier Bible Church and I hope you enjoyed today's sermon. But in closing, let me ask you one final question. If you were to die today, Are you sure that you go to heaven and not hell? Well, before you answer that, let me share one final thing with you. The Bible says that God is holy and that we are not. The Bible says that all of us, including myself, have fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of our sin is death. We don't deserve to go to heaven. We deserve to go to hell. And since we have a problem, we don't want to admit this, God, out of love, sent us something called the Ten Commandments, His Law, to show us that there's no way in the world that we could ever make it to heaven on our own. Let's take a look at a couple of them. The Bible says that you shall not lie, ever, not once in your life. How many of you guys have ever told a lie? Raise your hand. Well, for those of you who didn't raise your hand, you just proved my point. That would make you and I a liar before God. The Bible says you shall not steal. And if we're all honest with ourselves, we've taken something, even once, in our lives without permission that makes us a thief. The Bible says you shall not use the Lord's name in vain. And now the Lord's name has become a cuss word. We've broken that. The Bible says that makes us a blasphemer. The Bible says you shall not commit adultery. If you think you're going to get to heaven on your own, you shall never do that. But hey, you might think, well, that's a piece of cake. I've never done that one. Really? Jesus said, if you look at another person with lust in your eye, you've committed adultery in your heart. One more. The Bible says you shall not murder. And you might say, hey, no problem that one. I've never done that. Really? Jesus said, if you hate somebody in your heart, it's the same as murder in his eyes. Folks, that's just five out of ten commandments. How are you doing? You're going to tell me that you're going to stand before God and you really think he's going to let you into heaven and he's going to ask you, hey, who are you? And you say, hey, God, let me in. By your own admission, I'm a lying thief, blasphemer, adulterer, murderer. Let me in. Folks, God's not going to let you in. We don't deserve to go to heaven, folks. We have broken God's law. We deserve to die and go straight to hell. Here's the good news. God doesn't want you to go to hell. So he's pardoned you for your crimes. He wants to get you off a death row. And just like in real life, a person can get off a death row if they receive the governor's pardon. But just like in real life, a governor could write the pardon, even though the person is guilty of their crimes, he could write the pardon and say, you don't have to go to the death penalty. But if they don't receive that pardon from the governor, They will still go to the death penalty. Folks, that's what God has done every day to everyone all over the world. Jesus Christ took the death penalty in our place. And every day that a person is alive, God is reaching out to them, asking them, pleading with them, please receive my pardon for your crimes. Please don't go through with the death penalty. If you're here today and you want to make sure that you're going to heaven, you need to receive God's pardon. for your crimes through Jesus Christ. If that's you today, then maybe you could pray something like this. Dear Jesus, I know that I've broken your law. I am a sinner. I agree that you are holy and that I am not. And I'll never make it to heaven on my own. Please forgive me, Jesus, of all my sins. I believe that you died for me on the cross and rose again from the grave to pay the price for all my sins. I turn from my sins today and I turn to you. I trust in you, Jesus, and in you alone to take me to heaven. Make me into the person you want me to be. I surrender this life to you. In Jesus name, amen. Well folks, if you really prayed that prayer and you meant it from your heart, I want to be the first one to congratulate you. Welcome to God's forever family. But that's just the beginning. When a person first gets saved, which is just what happened to you, The Bible likens you as a baby. And a baby needs food, they need nutrients, they need somebody to care. And that's why something important you need to do now is to find a good, healthy church in your area who can help provide that nourishment for you. Unfortunately, not all churches are very good churches, so if you have some questions, then please contact us and we'd be glad to help you out. You need to get a Bible. You need to read the Word of God. And that's where you're going to find out about God and His wonderful plan and the reason and what He has planned and saved you for. You need to find it out in there as well. You need to pray to God. He's with you now wherever you go as His child. And prayer is not something mystical or magical. It's just simply having a conversation with God wherever you go. And finally, you need to tell somebody else about your new relationship with God and how that they can know for sure today how they can go to heaven instead of hell through God's pardon through Jesus Christ. Well, this has been Pastor Billy Crone of Niagara Frontier Bible Church. If there's anything we can do to help you, please don't hesitate to contact us. Our information, our contact information will be coming up on the screen here shortly, and we'd love to hear from you. Remember, I hope to see you in heaven. God bless. Thank you for watching this presentation from Niagara Frontier Bible Church. If you'd like to send us a letter or any other kind of postage you can reach us at 5287 Bronson Drive, Lewiston, New York 14092 or you can give us a call at 716-297-8783 or for email office at niagarafrontierbible.com or you can visit our website at www.niagrafrontierbible.com