to 1 John 2. We want to begin reading at the 15th verse. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. and the world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Little children, it is the last time, and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. Let's bow together as we ask the Lord's blessing on his word. Our Father, we do rejoice and the freedom that we have to gather here this morning to study thy word. We pray that you will help us to value this freedom, to be willing to defend it, to look to thee as the one who is the source of the only true freedom, which is the salvation of the soul. We pray that as thy word goes forth today, that it might speak to each of our hearts, to give us your message, to give us your understanding. that we might see clearly once again that thy word is truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ is truth, that we must know him if we are to have life eternal. We pray these things in Jesus' precious name, amen. We read a passage this morning that is clearly connected with Bible prophecy. Any portion of the Bible which speaks of the last days, or the latter days, or as we see here in verse 18, the last time, is clearly a prophetic passage. It was inspired by the Spirit of God almost 2,000 years ago, and yet it was written specifically for today. There can be only one period of time in history that is honestly, truly the last days. We know by looking at the signs that God has given in the Word that we are living in those days at this very moment. It's important for us to understand, as those who read and study the Bible, that there are certain portions of the Bible that were written specifically for the people who live in the last days. It's easy for us to lose sight of that fact unless we consider the Bible as a total revelation For example, there are many Old Testament passages which deal with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to earth the first time when he came to Bethlehem's manger. They were written hundreds of years before he came, and yet they had very little specific meaning until the Lord finally appeared on earth. When an Old Testament Bible student would sit down and read his Bible, He read the passage predicting the entry of the Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on the donkey. That didn't mean anything to him. He wasn't even aware of the particular circumstances that would surround the coming of the Lord Jesus into the world. So it wasn't possible for him to get into perspective how that Bible prophecy would fit into the circumstances of a day yet future. But once the Lord was actually on earth, once the time had come that it was near the period when that Bible prophecy would be fulfilled, things began to fall into place. People could look at the situation around them, they could see that the Lord was on the earth, and they could be looking forward to the fact that just as the Bible had predicted that he would be riding into the city of Jerusalem riding upon the donkey, as he did on Palm Sunday. Another more modern example would be Bible prophecies concerning the nation of Israel. God had predicted in his Word that he would deal with Israel in a day yet future. He said that even though the nation of Israel was dispersed and by all appearances disbanded. As people studied the Bible 1,500 years ago or 500 years ago or even 200 years ago, those prophecies pertaining to the nation of Israel could not be understood because there was no nation of Israel. How could God deal with a nation that did not exist? But in May of 1948, Israel became a nation for the first time in more than 2,000 years. They were recognized among world governments as a national entity that could be dealt with politically, and began to dawn in people's minds that these Bible prophecies that seemed so impossible were going to be true after all. Here was Israel again occupying the land. Here they were recognized by the nations of the earth. Therefore, it was going to be possible for these things that God said that he would do concerning the nation of Israel to fulfill those things according to his word. As we approach the end of the age, the Bible predicts that even Christians will lose their discernment. It says that we are coming down to a time when it will be manifested that that old serpent, the devil and Satan, has the power to deceive the whole world. One of the outstanding marks of man's lost condition is his inability to take the Bible and apply the things that are written there and be able to discern that which he sees happening around him in the world. We find that man is spiritually blind, that he is incapable of seeing things as God sees them. And the message of the Bible is that as we come to the close of this age, as we approach the time when the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come to catch away his people and to end life in the sense that we know it at this moment, that we would come to a period of great deception. A time when the mind of man would be caught up in things that are opposed to God and opposed to truth to such a degree that he'll move right into this period of deception that is spoken of here in the Bible. Our passage this morning is one that suggests that type of condition. It's one that warns against these circumstances that are coming upon the earth. Notice again what we read in 1 John 2, verse 18. Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last time. If you know the Bible, you know about the Antichrist. He's a man who will come on the world scene, he will deceive the nation, and his power to deceive will be so great that he's going to come very close to conquering the world. In fact, that will be his intent, to present himself as God, to set up a world government, to establish himself in the place that the Lord Jesus Christ will hold as the world ruler whenever he comes to set up his kingdom. The goal of the Antichrist will be world domination, political domination, but it will also be spiritual domination. He will be seeking to conquer not only by force, but more specifically, more importantly, by the force of ideas. Their great multitudes will be deceived by the ability of the Antichrist to portray himself as good when he is in fact the epitome of evil. This kind of deception is something that will be unparalleled in all the history of the world. We have seen and known people to be deceived temporarily by cults, by false religions here and there along the way. But we are talking here about mass deception. the kind that reaches around the world to every kind of person imaginable. And we find these great multitudes of people who are willing to hear and believe the ideas of the Antichrist. And believe them to such a degree that many of them will follow him in the direction of world religion and world government. We know about the Antichrist. The world knows about the Antichrist. There are many books that have been written in the last several years in particular talking about the Antichrist, the possibility of his rise to power. One of the more popular series of Hollywood movies produced in the past 20 years began with a film entitled The Omen. It is the story of a little boy who was born with the number 666 embedded in his skull. He is portrayed as having many kinds of supernatural powers and the idea behind these three movies is to picture him from the time that he was born until he rose to a position of world domination in much the same manner as the Antichrist pictured in the Bible. These movies had a professing Christian a Bible college professor as the technical advisor, and they quoted the Bible as the basis for their depiction of the Antichrist. It seems rather strange that anybody who knew the Lord would be involved in the type of thing that is presented by Hollywood. But it's not really strange when you stop to think about the power of the devil to deceive. how he can deceive even good people into thinking that there is some value in that which is totally evil. A part of the Bible's prophecy concerning the last days will come to a time when men call good evil and evil good. They will simply reverse the truth of the situation as they seek to evaluate the things that they find around Words such as Antichrist and Armageddon are words that are not at all strange to the world at large today, even though they are Bible words. A lot of it has to do with mythology. People have just taken those words out of the Bible and built their own ideas to explain them. But there is some basis in the Word of God. That's where the ideas came from. And it is the purpose of the devil to take ideas. and turn people away from the truth. I want you to notice in 1 John 2, verse 18, that the Apostle is here speaking prophetically. And as he speaks, he passes rather quickly over the subject of the Antichrist. He's on his way to making another point. He says, little children, it is the last time. As you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. Some have suggested that what he is saying here is that there is no such thing as a personal Antichrist, that the Antichrist that people generally talk about is just one in a series of antichrists, many of whom are already in the world. But that's not what he's saying at all. We understand the antichrist, the man of sin, the representative of Satan, the one who is predicted by the sixth chapter of the book of the Revelation to come riding upon a white horse in just the same manner that the Lord Jesus is going to come. He's going to come seven years prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus. and is coming as the satanic counterfeit to attempt to do in this world what the Lord Jesus Christ eventually will do. We know about that Antichrist. John says, you know, you heard that Antichrist shall come. But then he says, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. He says, even now, in the last time, in the last days, there are many Antichrists. In fact, he says this is one of the ways that we can know when we're living in the last days. The fact that there are many Antichrists is the proof that we are approaching the end of the age. But the question is, what does that mean? Obviously, he's not saying that there are many men attempting to take over the world in political fashion in the sense that the Antichrist is going to do. In fact, nowhere on the scene today is even one man who could dominate the world politically. There just aren't that kind of relationships between the governments of the world. So John must here be speaking of forces which are against Christ in the spiritual sense. The same spiritual sense that is going to motivate the presence and the power of Antichrist when he comes to deceive the world. Behind every man is a philosophy, a way of thinking. The Antichrist is going to set forth a philosophy of evil. It will be a philosophy of deception that will deceive the world into receiving what he has to say. So the obvious intent of the words of John is that there are many Antichrists in the world who advocate a philosophy of evil. There is the same mind behind many of the forces that we see in the world today that will be behind the ultimate force of Antichrist as he comes seeking to dominate the world and set up a kingdom. I would suggest that if you are a Christian, you should have some God-given discernment. You should be able to recognize the Antichrist, of which he speaks here in the 18th verse of the 2nd chapter of 1 John. If this passage is If Bible prophecy is correct, if you're not one of the deceived, you should be able to identify the Antichrist, the mini-Antichrist, of which John is speaking. If you just think about it a little bit. Another important factor here is that the passage that we've read this morning contains more than just the mention of antichrists in verse 18. As the context to this passage, it helps us to identify the antichrists that the Bible says would be so prevalent in the last days. Look again at 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not any. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away in the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." Little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are there many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time. God makes a connection in the context of this passage between that which the world approves and admires and the forces of Antichrist of the last days. He says we're talking about manifestations of worldliness. And he says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Certainly he's not speaking of the created world. This is not a prohibition against loving the flowers and the trees and the birds and the mountains. This is a prohibition against loving the world's philosophy. Loving the forces of Antichrist that we see coming together in the last days to fight against truth and to fight against God and to deceive the mind of man. When he speaks of the world, he's speaking of the anti-Christian philosophy of the Antichrist forces in the world. And he says something very definite here in verse 15. He says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If any man love the world, the love of the Father, God the Father, is not in him. You cannot love God and love the forces of Antichrist. God is against the forces of Antichrist. If God the Son has saved your soul, if he's living in your heart by faith, there's going to be a spirit living in you that is against the forces of Antichrist. You may not understand a great deal, but you can understand that there is this spirit living in you that is against the forces of Antichrist. We don't have time this morning to deal with all the facets of this in one message. But over the next couple of weeks, today and the next couple of weeks, I'm going to speak about three of these forces of Antichrist. the most powerful forces of Antichrist at work in these last days. And we're going to think of one from each of these categories that the Spirit of God suggests in the 16th verse. He says, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." I think one thing that is important to understand here is this. When you come across the word lust in the King James Version of the Bible, you are talking about an Old English word that was much more comprehensive than our word the way we use that word today. When we think of lust, we think of things that are connected exclusively with sexual implications. This word means that. But it means a great deal more than that. And speaking of the desires, the overall all encompassing desires that people have, and the perversion of those desires by the things that are mentioned here. So he's talking about the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, including the sexual implications, but also including many other types of desires as well. The one that we want to think about this morning is the lust of the flesh. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away in the desires thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." The desires of the flesh, the lust of the flesh is here set forth in very striking contrast to that which is of God. Obviously we know that people have normal desires, natural desires that are God-given, But that's not the subject here. The subject here is the perversion, in a very deceptive fashion, of that which God has placed in man as normal desire. Now what is the force of Antichrist, which in these last days has the greatest appeal to the lust of the flesh? There's no doubt whatsoever. It's something called rock and roll music. Rock and roll music is a 4.3 billion dollar a year industry. 4.3 billion dollars a year. That's not entertainment, that's religion. You don't spend 4.3 billion dollars in just a passing interest in amusing yourself. We're talking about some very serious money. And not only that, we're talking about an entire culture that is built around the implications of rock and roll music. The hottest program in this country today on the television set is Miami Vice. Now why is it like that? Just another detective story. If you read the commentators, if you read the columns, they'll tell you. The one difference, the thing that made it the number one rated program in the country time and time again is the music. The fact that they take original cuts of rock and roll music by the original artist and they use that as the background music for the television program. Now I claim to be an expert on rock and roll music. I recently heard a rock music disc jockey say that the only people who are against rock and roll are the people who don't understand it. I understood rock and roll music before he was born. The simple truth of the matter is that you just have to get saved to understand what the problem is. And you'll find that the young people today who don't understand the problem are very simply not saved. You cannot love the forces of Antichrist and love the Christ whom those forces are against. You can go to church, you can put on a facade of religion, you can deceive your parents, you can deceive your teacher, but you can't deceive God. And God says that there is a direct contradiction between this force of Antichrist that is in the world and the true Christ of Calvary who died for our sins and rose again to save us. I became a teenager the year that people say rock and roll was born, 1955. But I had already been listening to the only radio station in America that played rock and roll music for three years. They didn't call it rock and roll, but that's what it was. I loved rock and roll before anybody ever heard of that term. When I was ten years of age, I'd go to bed at night and I'd take the radio and hide it under the covers and listen to that music until three or four o'clock in the morning. None of my friends liked it. There was nothing about it on television. There was nothing about it in the magazines. I just loved rock and roll. At ten years of age, when I'd get money, I'd order records. Ordered them from Gallatin, Tennessee, the only place in America where you could buy rock and roll music before it was called rock and roll. It was called rhythm and blues back then. And if you know anything about the subject, if you've read anything or heard anything about the Rolling Stones or the Beatles or Duran Duran or ACDC or Felice or Michael Jackson or Madonna or any of those people, you'll know that they say that they learned about rock and roll from the old timers. They learned to play the kind of music they play from people like Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley and Little Richard and Fats Domino. Those were the people that I was listening to when I was 10 and 11 and 12 years old. I didn't know anybody else who listened to it. I didn't know why I was listening to it. I didn't have any idea that it would become the basis for most of the music in this society. By the time I was sixteen years old, I had more than a thousand records. And that was in the days when nobody bought records. I supplied records to the local radio station because I had more records than they did. If they wanted to hear rock and roll music, they came to me. I could name every rock and roll singer with a record and national release. I could tell you what label they recorded for. I could put you verbatim the words to hundreds of songs. And it was like that because rock and roll was the God that I worshipped. It was my religion. I devoted my affection to it, my time to it, my money to it, my life to it. That's what your religion is. Whatever you devote your affection and your time and your money and your interest to, that's your religion. You've never known anybody. You've never heard tell of anybody. who knew more about the first ten years of rock and roll than I did. Now I say that because, as I said, I claim to be an expert. I'm not somebody who just bought a few records now and then as a casual interest or who flipped on the radio to make my parents angry. That was my religion. I'm an expert on rock and roll. And I can tell you that in the arena of the lust of the flesh is the single most powerful force of Antichrist on the face of the earth today. Of course, naive parents don't know that. They think it's just a harmless diversion. Let the little kiddies go off into their room to listen to records or listen to the radio while they go in the other room and watch TV. Rock and roll music is a religion. It's a cancer of the mind. It's an addiction that is just as real as drugs or alcohol. The addicts in the rock and roll music side of things are just like the addicts in the drug business or in the alcohol business. They think they can take it or leave it. That's because they don't understand the problem. Rock and roll music, for one thing, is sex set to music. The term rock and roll is an old blues music euphemism for sexual intercourse. That's where the name came from. And back in the early days, The heroes of rock and roll were not much different from the heroes of rock and roll today. My two favorite singers when I was growing up were Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Chuck Berry was a child molester. Spent time in prison for that. Little Richard was a homosexual. One of the first men ever to openly present himself in society wearing women's makeup wearing an earring, doing the kinds of things that homosexuals do today. I remember this was long before society was even aware that there were that many child molesters and homosexuals running around. And these were the heroes of this subculture. One that was totally divorced from the minds of the parents of that era. because they've never heard such a thing before. Rock and roll is sex set to music. Rock and roll is rebellion personified. It's a mind-bending drug with the power to control the way people dress, the way they talk, the way they think. And all you have to do is look at the children in society to know this is true. Now you just get tinges of it in a place like this, but if you go to Washington D.C. or some metropolitan area today, as I've just done, what you'll see walking up and down the streets of that city are people who dress to identify themselves with rock and roll. They fix their hair to identify themselves with rock and roll. They follow the heroes, the cultural heroes of the moment in the field of rock and roll music. I said a few moments ago that the children of this nation spend 4.3 billion dollars a year on tapes and records. That's 400, I don't know how much it is. It's so much you can't imagine. You know the human mind can only comprehend a thousand and that not very well. You have to be unusually intelligent to be able to work with a thousand in your brain and do it effectively. But when you're talking about 4.3 billion dollars, you're talking about enough money to run several of the states in this nation. And this is the amount of money that young people spend on tapes and records every year. That's not to mention all the other things that are affected by the music, such as the clothes, the mass market in wearing apparel that follows the trend of the latest thing. I'm sure you realize that there are many rock and rollers who are in it to make money. Those are the ones who never make any. The people who make the money are the people who are in it because it's their religion. It's like it was my religion. They worship at the altar of rock and roll music. They would make rock and roll music if they didn't get paid a dime. About a year or so ago, there was a point when Michael Jackson was making $30,000 a day off the sale of one album. That was his own personal profit, $30,000 a day. But it's virtually impossible for people who are not associated with this subculture in society to understand the effect that it has. between the 7th and the 12th grades as according to U.S. News & World Report between the 7th and the 12th grades the average teenager or the average young person will spend 10,500 hours listening to rock and roll that's more time than they spend in school so that tells you where the real education is coming from And that's the average. 10,500 hours in six years. The ultra-liberal National Education Association, which is almost never against anything, estimates that many of the 5,000 teenage suicides in this nation every year have a direct link to the words and the music of rock and roll. And it's understandable if you hear some of them or read some of them. Because there are songs on the market today by popular groups that recommend suicide. They say that it's the only reasonable alternative to life as we find it. There are others that suggest that the best way to handle the problems at home is to kill your parents. That takes care of any problem that you might have with their authority. 64% of the tapes and records bought in this country are sold to people between the ages of 10 and 24 years of age. And they buy these records, $4.3 billion worth every year, for two reasons. Number one, superficially, to entertain themselves. That's their perception of things. They say, I like it. That's why I do it. But the second reason that they buy these things, and the reason that they don't understand, is that they're deceived by the very forces of Antichrist that John is speaking of right here. The powers of darkness understand the power of music. And music is one of the most powerful mediums available and the transmission of feeling. If you've ever heard the Marine Corps band or a college or university band playing marching music you know something about that. But that's absolutely nothing compared to what happens when you connect this natural force that music has upon people with demonic power. If you get demon power behind what is already a powerful force, you have something that is absolutely compelling to the mind and heart of people. And what do these songs talk about? They talk about sexual promiscuity, devil worship, homosexuality, lesbianism, masturbation, sadomasochism, necrophilia, incest, the occult, the use of drugs, the use of liquor. These things are presented to the real students of the music. I got to realize, as you know if you've ever flipped on the radio and hit upon a rock music station, that there's a great deal of the music today that's virtually unintelligible, at least in terms of the words. It's only the devotees who really appreciate the situation that get into the music I mean, get into the words of rock and roll music to any degree. Just in recent times, there has been this great discovery by some of the wives of the people on Capitol Hill. It didn't take them long, thirty years, that they finally realized that some of these songs say some ungodly things. Some of these songs tell you to kill yourself or kill your parents or shoot heroin into your vein. And so we see these organizations attempting to be formed in Washington regarding rock and roll and a new move on to possibly try to rate these records according to some rating system similar to what is done with regard to movies. The whole thing is rather absurd, to tell you the truth. Because people are not going to give up their religion. And under the guise of freedom of speech, freedom of the press, they're going to publish rock and roll, and they're going to publish rock and roll that says anything they want to say. And there are only two things that will stop it. One is parents who have the responsibility to be in charge of what goes into the mind of their young children. Now, refraining from rock and roll won't save your children. But you don't have any idea how far it can go to helping them get saved someday. If they can escape If they can avoid those years of having pounded into their mind the most powerful force of Antichrist with regard to the rest of the flesh in the world today, it's going to help them. And you as parents better be willing to pay the price to stop them from hearing it. I know that my children have listened to rock and roll. I'd be a fool to think that they hadn't. But I'll guarantee you one thing, they've never listened to it in my house or in my car when I've known about it. Because I understand it. Now they want to go out and buy their groceries and buy their automobile and listen to rock and roll, that's their business. But not in my house. And a great tragedy is that there are so many parents who don't understand the seriousness of this situation. And they kind of have this attitude that they're going to leave it up to these immature minds to fight this all-out war against the devil himself. The most powerful force of antichrist in the world today, in the realm of the lust of the flesh. And you just send this 10 or 11 or 12 year old kid out there and say, you make up your mind. The devil will have their mind. The music is the real problem. As I say, only the serious devotees of the religion get into the words that much. Every now and then a four-letter word will pop up on the radio. Somebody will happen to hear what is really being said in some of those But the real power, the addictive power is not in the words, it's in the music. Rock and roll is a sound that can be identified instantly by the people who used to worship at the altar, people like me. When I listen to Jimmy Swagger, and I hear him play some of the songs that he plays, I get exactly the same feeling that I used to get when I listened to Jerry Lee Lewis, his cousin, play the piano. It doesn't have the same words, but it has the feeling. It has the power that appeals to the lust of the flesh. Exactly the same thing is true when it comes to so-called Christian rock. There is no such thing as Christian rock. That's like speaking of a godly devil. There is no such creature. And when you listen to people like Amy Grant, you're listening to a rock and roller pretending to be someone who's offering Christian music. And that's true of a great deal of the music that you'll hear today, particularly in the Now, as I say, those of us who are experts understand we don't have any problem because we used to worship at that altar. But Chuck Berry explained it pretty well in a song that he wrote. He said, let me hear some of that rock and roll music. Any old way you choose it. It's got a backbeat, you can't lose it. in the old-time music. Rock and roll music has a backbeat that you cannot lose. It's totally identifiable to anybody who knows anything about the meme. And it's just as evident on many so-called Christian radio stations today, and churches that cater to Christian rock presenting people who are offering the religion of rock and roll, the sound of rock and roll, with some of the words, Christian words designed to deceive people into listening to it. I say again, don't tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. Because I know more about this kind of music than you've ever imagined. It was my religion. It was my education. It was my life. And I'm telling you that this is the single most powerful force of Antichrist and the area of the lust of the flesh in the world today. If you want to know what's the matter with children generally in our society, this is what's the matter with children. They have other problems. There are other things that entice children in the wrong direction. But the driving force behind the youth culture of this nation, the underlying factor that is in their minds and hearts and in their social life, in their thought life, in their perception of reality, of what it means to be important, what it means to be cool, what it means to be accepted by their peers, it has its foundation in this industry. And it's an industry composed of some of the most satanic, immoral, ungodly human beings that ever walked on the face of the earth. The gurus of rock and roll are not there for the money. And if you think they are, you don't understand the situation. They're there because that is their religion. They've given their life to this thing. And they would worship this truth if they didn't make a dime. They'd live for it if they starved to death on the way. There are some of you sitting here this morning who don't believe it. But I'll tell you what proves it. There are some of you sitting here this morning, and you wouldn't give up rock and roll right this minute for the salvation of your soul. If you believed that you had to turn your back on the music in order to go to heaven, you wouldn't do it. You won't do it. You'll walk out this door not having done it. And it's because it is your religion. It's what you believe in instead of the Bible. Not in addition to the Bible. Instead of the Bible. Because God says if you believe the Bible, you're not going to love the forces of Antichrist. You're not going to allow your mind and heart to be filled with these things that are so contrary to God and truth. if the love of the Father is in you. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Wouldn't it be a terrible thing to stand before God one day at the great white throne of judgment and have him say to you, in much the same manner as he said to the rich young ruler, there was one thing that you lacked in your life. You understood that you were a sinner. You knew that you needed to go to heaven. You were concerned about the fact that you'd done bad things here and said bad things there. But there was one thing that you lacked. You loved rock and roll more than you loved me. That music was more important to you than the salvation of your soul. The Lord may say that to many people. Whether he says that or not, it will be true. But the point is, God offers to you an opportunity to escape that religion. He offers you a chance to believe the Word of God, to deny the forces of Antichrist, to have the Lord Jesus come to live in your heart so that you won't love the things that God hates anymore. And he provided that opportunity in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who came to the cross of Calvary, the one who died there for your sin. The one who made it possible for you to have eternal life as a free gift. But you have to keep in mind that it's only a possibility. A possibility made available by the Lord Jesus. An offer that he makes. to the mind and the heart of man, so that we have an opportunity to be saved. But the clear message of the Bible is also that we have an opportunity to reject it. The Lord spoke to some of the most prominent religious leaders of his day, and he said to them, you will not come to me that you might have life. And that is the condition of anybody here this morning who leaves this meeting lost. It's not that you cannot come to God, it's that you will not come to God. It's that you will not turn your back on what the world has to offer in favor of what heaven has to offer. But God says now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. He loves you so much that he sent the Lord Jesus into this world to die in order that you might be saved. And if you lose your soul forever, if you end up in the lake of fire, it will be because you trampled all over the blood of Christ on the way. It will be because you mocked the death of the Son of God who died in your place and offered you the gift of eternal life. There is no reason to do that. Anybody who would lose their soul for Madonna is a fool. Anybody who would lose their soul forever for the thrill of listening to Leonard Skinner or Prince or some devil use four-letter words and make suggestive sexual statements, anybody who would do that is obviously a fool. And the Bible says that you have an opportunity to escape this religion, this false religion that binds great multitudes, not only in this nation, but around the world. And that opportunity is in the Lord Jesus, who died that you might receive from him the gift of everlasting life. Let's bow together as we close in prayer. You'll give us the wisdom that we need to believe your word. We know that it's only by the convicting power of thy spirit that we can get that clear glimpse of truth that we might have an opportunity to believe. How we pray that today you will speak to hearts. How we pray that you'll help parents to understand the seriousness of this situation. I pray that you'll help young people to see that in many cases there are souls that hang in the balance because of the religious devotion that is in the hearts of many to this force of Antichrist. And we pray that as we come to the close of this meeting, that there's someone here today who's lost and without hope, someone who can see their need to be saved. I do pray that you won't let them leave this place without speaking to me about their soul. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.