The scripture reading this morning is 2 Peter 3, verses 1 through 13. 2 Peter 3, verses 1 through 13. This is now the second letter that I'm writing to you, beloved. In both of them, I'm stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord, Savior, through your apostles, knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years, and 1,000 years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, What sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved. The heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. That is the word of the Lord. Certain and true promises which we are to believe. Let's ask the Lord's blessing then as we come to his word. Father, as we open up your word now to consider this matter of the last days, We pray that you would help us, enable us to understand your word, grant us strong faith to firmly believe your word, show us where we need to repent of sin or carelessness in regard to living lives in Christ, in regard to believing these promises and living each day, looking for your coming again. Father, we pray that you would strengthen our faith, that you would open our minds, that we would see these truths clearly, all for your glory. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen. Children, John wrote, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. I thought today we would consider this subject, the question, are we in the last days? was brought to my attention because yesterday morning I was asked to be on a short 20-minute portion of a talk show. And the topic was this, are we in the last days? So needless to say, in that period of time, we couldn't delve into that subject real deeply. But I hope that we put some clarity on the issue for the listeners. The host of the show, who he called me and asked me to be on it, said that he gets, he regularly, and increasingly lately, he regularly receives this question from people who follow his online, I guess you'd call it, it's kind of a conservative online magazine filled with regular, Regular articles and it's not necessarily a Christian program. So the audience while they're politically conservative Is not a typical Christian audience, but nevertheless He said he he's regularly getting this question Are we in the end times? And so it does seem that increasingly people are thinking about this, even people who are not Christians. Well, the short answer to that question, are we in the last days? Are we in the end times? The short answer to that question is yes and no. And I want to show you from scripture that that's not an evasive answer, but it is a biblical answer. Yes, we are in the last days. And no, we aren't absolutely in the last days, or you might say in the last of the last days. All right. Well, let's see if we can sort these things out. First of all, definitions are important. So when someone asks the question, are we in the end times or are we in the last days, they don't all mean the same thing when they think about the last days, especially if they're not coming at it from a biblical perspective. Some people mean by these terms the last days, the end of everything. Are we approaching the end of time, the end of everything, when there's going to be some kind of cataclysmic event, something like a meteor strike that supposedly once hit the earth and killed all the dinosaurs and so forth, right? Or some massive global ice age so that the earth becomes a cold, lifeless rock with no people surviving. You know, this is the stuff that fuels the radical environmentalist movement. If you think about it, those kind of people, the green movement and all this kind of thing, save the earth business, they're motivated by fear. They're terribly fearful people then, you see, they're driven by it. Other people see the end times as a point in human history in which war, destroys civilization and kind of a new barbarism develops. So if you watch a movie like Mad Max, right, you see that kind of a thing and everybody's a mutant from radiation and all this kind of stuff. So people get those ideas from sci-fi and movies and so on. And then some people will think, are we at the end of a cycle? When they say, are we in the last days, the end days, last times, they mean, are we at the end of the present cycle? Because they view time as a cyclical thing, which kind of resets itself every bajillion years or something like that. so that the world returns to some kind of a primal state at some point and another cycle of evolution or advancement of civilization takes place. I'm not recommending any of these movies to you necessarily, but just to use them as illustrations. If you waste lots of time, like I did once, watching the whole series of Battlestar Galactica, that whole series is built on that notion, a cyclical thing, over and over again. Here we are again, back at the beginning. And that's kind of a spoiler alert if you haven't watched the last thing. And then still other people, as Peter mentioned to us here, They don't even really use the term at all, last days, because they say that things are just going to keep going on forever, just like they always have been. Now, only a fool would look at the condition of our world and the path of human history and say that, you know. And yet at the same time, we can also know, and we can take confidence in this, that actually, None of those scenarios is going to play out. The end of the days is not going to end in those kinds of ways. As I said, all of these views share one primary characteristic, and that is fear. Fear of what? Well, you name it. Some new pandemic. a nuclear war that's going to destroy everybody, fear of economic collapse and maybe a resulting famine that wipes out civilizations, or maybe there's going to be some kind of an astronomical or meteorological event that destroys and brings civilization and humanity then to an end. Fear. All those things have this fear in common. That's where man is without Christ. That fear is to never characterize us as Christians. In fact, what the Bible says is that as believers, we are to be looking for and loving his appearance when he comes again. always looking for him to come. Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, right? The Bible ends that way. It ends on a very positive note. But the unbeliever is in bondage, is in bondage to Satan. And Satan, as we know from Hebrews chapter two, Satan's means of keeping people in bondage is through the fear of death. And so we're told there that Christ has come to destroy the one who has the power of death, which is people living in this kind of fear all the time. But Christ comes and he overcomes death and gives us eternal life. so that we need not fear. The Bible's definition of the last days, which is, that's the term that's usually used, sometimes the last hour, and this is what people talk about when they say the end times, but the Bible's definition of the last days is very much different. Here's how the Bible presents the last days. The last days is that period in human history which extends from the resurrection of Christ to the second coming of Christ. In other words, the last days are the church age. We are living in the last days. And you see this very plainly over and over again in the New Testament, for example, Acts 2. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Now that promise out of Joel, the prophet Joel, is applied by, I guess it was Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost. And in the last day, well, these are the last days. 2 Timothy 3, Paul told Timothy, understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. With the implication we're in the last days, Timothy, that's why you need to know this. Hebrews 1, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son." Obviously, in these last days. Now, Christ has come. We're in these last days. 2 Peter 3, as we just read, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing and so on, right? And 1 John 2, children, He gets very pointed here, it's very interesting. It is the last hour. And as you've heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. So that's the biblical definition of the last days. Are we in the end times? Are we in the last days? Absolutely. Absolutely, we are. The Bible does not present any notion of human history, of the history of this present world and creation, as some kind of cycle that just keeps repeating itself. The Bible shows us, from Genesis to Revelation, that history is linear. That is, it runs in a line. And not only does it run in a line, It has an alpha point, a beginning, and it has an omega point, an ending. In other words, this present world is not going to go on forever. It's not going to happen. It is temporal. Now, that doesn't mean that when this present world ends, there will be some kind of nothingness. Rather, we know there will be a new heavens and a new earth and a new humanity. Any philosophy, incidentally, any philosophy that would indicate that a person's existence after death or, say, this present world and humanity's existence after This earth is no more, right? And it presents it as nothingness. Try to think, in your mind, try to think of yourself as being in nothingness. You can't do it. You can't do it. The thing is impossible. You cannot imagine yourself being in a condition of non-existence. Why? God's built this into us. It's innate within us to know that we will always be. But then that's for another time to talk about here. But the end of this present world does not result in some kind of nothingness. It results in the full culmination of God's new creation. We see this idea of alpha and omega, beginning point and ending point of human history several times in scripture. Revelation 21, verse 6 says, and he said to me, it is done. This is Christ speaking. I am the Alpha and the Omega. That's like, in English alphabet, saying I am the A and the Z, all right? That's the beginning and the end. The beginning and the end. To the thirsty, I will give from the spring of water, of the water of life, without payment. So God, the Father, Christ, the Son, use the same title. I am the Alpha and the Omega. What does he mean by that? Well, it's defined there. He's the beginning and the end. I started this present world at creation. I started human history. And I am going to be the one that ends it, that ends this present world. That's what that means. He's the one who brought everything into existence, and he's the one who will destroy this present creation with fire, right? Revelation 21, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. They're gone. And this present world and this present humanity outside of Christ needs to be gone because it's corrupt, it's Unrighteous, it's full of sin. It's under the curse. It needs to be made new, just like we need to be made new then in Christ. We see kind of the same thing spoken to Daniel by that angel back in Daniel 12. But go your way, he's talking to Daniel, till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days. So there's going to be an end of the days, an end of this present era. However, Daniel and those who are in Christ will stand, will continue. And with all of that in mind, listen to 2 Peter 3, then once again. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire. See, remember, that's why John tells us don't love this present world. It's all going up in smoke, right? So the present heavens and earth are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this fact, this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord, one day is as 1,000 years. And 1,000 years is one day. The Lord's not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish. But that all should reach repentance. So these guys that are saying, oh, you idiots. What's all this talk about this world coming? Everything's gone on from the very beginning. And they acknowledge the beginning, by the way. From the beginning, just as it always has. And it's just going to keep doing that. And as Peter points out, basically what he's telling them here is that you guys are stupid. And you're stupid in at least a couple of points here. First of all, everything has not gone on as it is now, with no change. You ever hear of Noah's flood, right? God destroyed the present world and present humanity then, you see. Secondly, you guys are stupid, he's telling these mockers, because here's God. And they're saying, oh, it just keeps going on and on, and God's not doing anything, and His promises are never going to happen, and so forth. But all the time, the reason that there appears to be delay is that God wants them to come to repentance. He doesn't want anybody to go to hell. And yet, here they are, mocking and so forth. Fools, indeed. The day of the Lord will come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. That's going to happen. Now, you have to deal with yourself when you see things like this in scripture, all right? You need to do some serious business with yourself. I can't do it for you. Nobody else can do it for you. You have to ask yourself, do I believe that? That's what we're being challenged. Here's what God says. This present world is going to be torched. This whole creation is going to be torched. I'm going to make a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells, and there will never be sin or evil or assassinations or any of this wicked evil stuff going on. You'll never have to worry about this kind of a thing again. But we get so attached to life in this present world that without really realizing it, we can kind of have doubts about this, right? Well, we must not doubt it. This is the Lord telling us that this is where this world's going. Now, think on this also. Do you really want this world to continue on forever and ever? I mean, do you really want it? We'll see in a moment that Jesus in the Olivet Discourse described what life in this present creation is about. It's full of evil. It's full of anti-Christ and fake Christians. It's full of wars and worries about wars and famines and unrighteousness and wickedness. It's full of this. Wouldn't you really like to have it all fixed so you can live in a new creation where all of that evil is gone? And this time around, it's forever, too, where there's no death. So, and doesn't it really make sense that God's salvation of us in Christ would include this new creation? You see. So these are the things to think about. And Peter challenges us here. He says, since all these things are thus to be dissolved, since this is how it's gonna go down, What sort of people are you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? Waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. So there's the challenge from Peter. It's from the Lord to us. How am I living in this present world? Am I setting down permanent foundations? Or am I living in a tent, as an alien and stranger, as Abraham did, living in the land of Canaan? Am I loving and looking for the appearance of Christ, waiting for the new heavens, yearning for the new heavens and the new earth? Or am I a worldling that loves this present world? The thing is deceptive, it'll take you to hell. The world and the devil, you know, it's so seductive because in a way, you know, life in this kind of a world is all we've ever known. We think that we can tend to think that, well, this is normal. This stuff is normal, right? Well, it's abnormal. Pretty much everything in this present world is under the curse and it's abnormal. It is not the way that God originally created it and it's not the way that God created us. And so we have to examine ourselves. Do I believe this? This brings us back then to the question that we're dealing with here. Are we close? to these events? Is the return of Christ close? Are we in the last days? Yes, we're in the last days, but are we getting close to the last of the last days, to the return of Christ? First of all, we need to realize this. Christ himself said it, Matthew 24. Nobody knows. Nobody knows what? Nobody knows what? Nobody knows the exact time or moment when Christ is going to come again. Concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven nor the Son, but the Father only. Somehow, even in the Trinity, maybe he's referring to his humanity. I don't know, it's mysterious. But Jesus said he didn't even know then. In this teaching section of Matthew, Matthew chapters 24 and 25, which is called the Olivet Discourse because Jesus is speaking to the disciples from the Mount of Olives. We have the largest recorded teaching on the last days and on Christ's return that Christ gave. It's a big section. It's not easy to understand all the details. of Matthew 24 and 25, but the big picture, the main points are very clear. And here's one of the absolute main points that Jesus was making. No one knows when Christ is coming again, but we are to constantly live in a state of anticipation and readiness for his return. Because if we aren't ready, If we're not in Christ, when he does return, it's too late. All right? We have to be ready. Jesus went to great pains. He told more than one parable to drive this point home. The classic one here is the parable of the 10 virgins. Listen to it here. Matthew 25. Then the kingdom of heaven will be like 10 virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them. But the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps." Now, this is all wrapped up, of course, in Jewish marriage ceremony, culture, and customs, and so forth. But we can see the main points, all right? A lamp is no good unless you've got some kerosene in or some oil in. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight, there was a cry. Here's the bridegroom. Come out to meet him. Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. Now, that would be parallel to What shall we say? An unsaved person who's been careless in their life, not giving thought to the return of Christ and these things and so forth, And Christ comes, and they ask a Christian, give me some of your faith. Give me some of your faith. Can't do it. No can do. It's not going to happen. You've got to get your own. And of course, by then, the point is it's too late. Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves. So they did, right? But while they're gone, going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered, truly I say to you, I do not know you. And here's the punchline point, verse 13. Watch, therefore. for you know neither the day nor the hour." And those then who reject Christ, the foolish virgins, as this discourse teaches, will go away into eternal punishment, and they end in hell. So here again, these scriptures are full of challenges. That's what they're about, right? For every one of us, every one of us, are you ready? If Christ came right now, Right now, and he could, would you be ready? Are you born again? Do you know him? Are you living for him? Lots and lots of people know about these things generally. That's why they're asking, are we in the last days? But they don't want to be radical about these things because, look it, so we answer them. Yeah, we're in the last days. Yeah, Christ could come back anytime. Okay, and then they just go off and keep living just like they've been living. It makes no impact on them at all. If Christ came tonight, and let's bring it home even further here. Christ's second coming doesn't have to come tonight for him to come tonight for you personally. You could die. You could die before this night is over. Only a fool would deny, oh, it couldn't happen to me, right? You could die. That's Christ coming. Are you ready? Are you ready, you see? The mass of humanity is not and won't be, and they will end in hell then. as a result, you see. Somehow, I think we were mentioning, you know, we had a good illustration in the first class this morning in Mr. Badman on his deathbed, right? He wasn't ready and he didn't seem to care. He didn't care. Are you ready? Think of that sobering finality of it all. When Christ comes, whether he comes to you because you die and have to stand before him, or whether when he comes again in his second coming, it's final. It's absolutely final. That's the point of the 10 virgins parable. There's no second chance here. You have to be ready when he comes for you. or you will, because there won't be any time. That'll be it. It'll be over. So that's why the scripture says, today is the day of salvation. Today, if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart against him, because you might not have a tomorrow, then, to believe in him. Now, there are signs, however, given to us in the Bible, that the Bible presents to us, that indicate Christ's return is near, all right? So let's look at some of these, because we are certainly seeing, I think we can say that we're certainly seeing some of these things. It's not far-fetched to believe that Christ's second coming, well, we know this, it's closer today than it was yesterday. All right, each moment coming closer and closer and closer. But there are some signs which we can look for that would indicate that we're getting into the last of the last days. But there's also some that must take place which have not fully happened yet. And in that sense, we can say Christ can't come today. All right, now I know that sounds a bit confusing, but there are some things that are going to happen and will have to happen before Christ comes again in judgment. And we haven't seen these things then in their fullness. So first of all, The last days, Jesus says, now, don't be deceived. And in this passage here from Matthew 24, you'll notice how many times he warns us about deceivers, false Christs. And what he's describing here for us is, look it. Let me tell you about what your life is going to be like in this present world before I come again, all right? Don't, when these things happen, don't let anybody tell you, oh, this is a sign that I'm coming back right now, all right? Don't let anybody tell you that. So what he says is, first of all, that these last days, that is the church age, will have certain characteristics that we can expect throughout the whole church age, all right? This is what we can expect in this fallen world. So as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when, they asked him like three part question, when will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus answered them, see that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. So there's the first thing that characterizes the age in which we live, false Christs and false prophets. Don't be misled by them. And who can deny, but the church age has been filled with false Christs and false prophets. That doesn't mean that the end is imminent. All right. And then he says, You can expect wars throughout this age, along with natural cataclysms. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet." Do you see how he keeps pushing it home? Don't be deceived. False Christ, false prophets. Don't be alarmed. All right, there's going to be, here's an earthquake. Oh, this must be the end, you see. No, we're not supposed to go there. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains, all right? So this is going to happen. This is life in a fallen world. It's a mistake to say Man, things are really unfolding in the Middle East right now with this war between Hamas and Israel. Crisis is going to come right now any second because this is a... Don't do that. Don't do that. No one knows the exact time. Just expect that's life in this world. You can bet that people during, for example, World War II, there would have been people that thought this is... And you could understand why, to some degree, that this is it. Christ has to come. The world's going to destroy itself and so on. But that wasn't the case. Another characteristic of our present age, hatred of Christ and his people and persecution of the church. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death. And you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. All right? Expect it. That's it. If you're popular with the world, then there's a problem. And then he says, apostasy and betrayal even in and really primarily in the visible church. Verse 10, and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another and many false prophets will arise. and lead many astray. I just find it interesting that he keeps repeating over and over again, false prophets, don't believe them, watch out, false Christ. And then he says, we can expect increased lawlessness, verse 12, because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. And then, of course, though, on a more encouraging note, Throughout the church age, there will be the continued preaching of the gospel because the gates of hell won't prevail against the church. This gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. So this is what we can expect in the last days. But there are more specific signs that scripture gives us. which indicate that we will have entered the last of the last days, that we're right there on the verge of Christ's second coming, all right? And the first one of these is the appearance of the man of lawlessness or the antichrist. You find this very plainly in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Now, John tells us in 1 John that the spirit of the Antichrist, which is Satan, is presently active all through the church age. The Antichrist is at work, and he works through people, false teachers and so on. And they're Antichrist. They're instead of Christ. They're fake. Christ. They're people disguised as Christians. These anti-Christ people raised up by Satan are people who pretend to be Christ. The Pope is a clear example of this. The Apostle John says at 1 John 2, children it's the last hour and as you have heard that anti-Christ, the anti-Christ, is coming so now Many antichrists have come. Therefore, we know that it's the last hour. And note here where these antichrists had originated, all right? They went out from us, but they were not of us, for if they'd been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. They were originally professing Christians. The primary arena of operation is within, then, the visible church. But the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, has not yet appeared. And he has to appear before Christ comes. Paul says so. Listen to the second Thessalonians. To let no one deceive you in any way. for that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first. There's going to be some kind of a massive, massive apostasy falling away from the faith, that virtually the whole visible church will be apostate, and there will be just a remnant of genuine believers. So that has to come first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction. The day of the Lord, the second coming of Christ, will not come until this great apostasy and this revealing of the man of lawlessness, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God. So he makes this announcement to the whole world. And the world, by the way, is going to believe him and worship him. This is this Revelation 13 stuff, the beast and so on. So he sets himself up as God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And you know what's restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. The spirit of the Antichrist is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he's out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders. That must happen before Christ comes again. It hasn't happened yet. There have been little antichrists, all right? And they all try to make a one-world kingdom, but they rise and they fall. Now, there is a one-world kingdom coming. And it will be established under God's sovereignty, of course, by the Antichrist for a short time. But the whole world will say, who is like the beast? Who can resist him? And they're all just enthralled with him then, you see. the Antichrist, he will succeed in establishing then this world kingdom. Listen to Revelation 13. I saw a beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads, ten diadems on his horns and blasphemous names on his head. It's the same beast that Daniel saw. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it, the dragon, that's Satan, gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads seemed to have had a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed. Now look at this. And the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. They worshiped the dragon. This one world kingdom and one world religion will be the worship of Satan. For he had given authority to the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who's like the beast, and who can fight against it. The beast was given a mouth, uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven." So there'd be this great persecution of any Christian. that are still around them. Also, it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it. Everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." In other words, the elect. Now, clearly, that hasn't happened yet. So here's this tension. We are told to live our lives every day as if Christ could come back any moment. And we are. We're to live that way. At the same time, we know some specifics about how these things are going to go down. And we know, then, that this has not happened yet, but that it is going to happen, and that Hatred and persecution of Christians is going to increase. So there's that. How else do we know, can we know that we're approaching the last of the last days? Well, one sign that we do see happening, and I think increasingly so now, it's been around for some time, is this business of globalism. You know, the wokists, I guess you'd call them, right? They're big on this business of globalism. And it's been increasing for a long time. The pressure's on. That's what this no borders thing is about. Globalism. We're going to have one big united nation. You know, that's what we want. Other indicators of this globalism, a one world economy. This, and I don't think it's something that's just a conspiracy theory. When people start talking about digital currencies and this kind of a thing, and the whole world getting involved in it all, that's globalism, you see. And of course, there's ecumenism, one world religion, and pressure. So this globalism idea is definitely increasing. We can say, on the authority of God's word, that globalism is absolutely against God's will. And he made that very plain when? At the Tower of Babel, right? We're all going to be together. He said, no, you're not. In this fallen world, you guys and your sin, there won't be any kind of evil that you can't pull off if I let you all get together. We're going to put an end to that right now. And so he did. And he divided up the nations. by their languages and cultures and so forth. He did that. And yet, you always see, right, well, we're going to have a United Nations. We're going to have a League of Nations. The nations are all going to get together here, and we'll be able to solve all the problems of the world. This will be the war to end all wars. How well has that worked? The United Nations, if I can be a bit political here, The United States ought to give the boot to the United Nations and tear down that building. It absolutely accomplishes nothing at all. And the reason it accomplishes nothing is because man will never, ever effect peace apart from Christ. It's never going to happen. So the thing is an absolute waste then. What else are we going to see? Are we seeing now? on an increasing basis. Now, apostasy from the truth. So for example, 2 Thessalonians 2, let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first. This apostasy. Along with this idea of falling away from Christ, professing Christians, visible church, falling away from Christ, is this whole increased phenomenon that we see increasing today. And that is people believing falsehoods, people believing lies that are just insane. And boy, it's been snowballing faster and faster, it seems like. in just the last 10 years or so. I mean, who would have thought that you would have people who will murderously stand against any opposite, anybody that's gonna tell me that there's male and female, for example, is, and we will hate you if you try to tell us that there's men and there's women and all this kind of, but people, they believe that. Why? Well, God, this is one way God judges the wicked. He's saying, you won't hear my truth. You hate my truth that I've revealed to you very plainly, so tell you what I'm going to do. I'm gonna send upon you a deluding spirit so you'll become delusional and you won't be able to believe the truth. What you will believe is a lie. You're gonna be insane. And that's what he's doing and that's what's in, and we see that increasing and that would indicate that things are picking up as we advance toward the end times, the end of the end times. We've mentioned before, increased lawlessness, and violence. That was the thing that was pointed to as God's reason for bringing judgment on the earth in Noah's day. So Genesis 6. Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and the earth was filled with violence. And so he resolves to destroy it, to destroy mankind. The earth was filled with violence. Are we seeing an increase in violence? Absolutely that we are. in our cities, and so on. So there are numbers of signs that are identified in scripture that are signs of the last of the last days. And as they increase, we know that the second coming of Christ is drawing closer and closer. But at the end of it all, we cannot know the exact hour. God does not want us to know the exact time or the exact hour that Christ is going to come again. What we are to do is to live in light of the fact that he is King of Kings, that he's coming again, as Psalm 98 says, to judge the world in righteousness. God has appointed Christ to come, and it should be our eager anticipation that he should come very, very soon. I hope and pray that not a single one of you, not a single one of you ends up living your life and playing around carelessly with these kinds of things. You know, it's so easy for people to drift. Hebrews says, you better be careful, or you're just going to drift. We have to take care here, lest we drift away from these things. People want to go through life. They profess to be Christians, but they're careless about it. And they're just kind of drifting along, assuming they're going to drift into heaven. Well, guess what? When you go out on the ocean, Verla and I go out on the ocean in our boat. I've got a lot of confidence in Yamaha outboards. So we have a Yamaha fuel-injected outboard. But if that engine quits when you're out there on the ocean, you've got trouble. You've got trouble. Why do you have trouble? Do you think that you're going to just drift back into the bay and safely up to the dock? What you're going to drift into is the rocks. That's what's going to happen. I do not hesitate to say that most professing Christians are drifting. And they're assuming that they're going to drift right into heaven. It's not going to happen. It isn't going to happen. We have to be diligent and careful to follow Christ and order our lives in such a way that demonstrate that we really are following him. that we don't put our ultimate love and trust in this present world, and that we recognize Christ is coming again, and that our real home is not here, it's there with him. Father, we thank you for these warnings and these encouragements from scripture that you've given to us. We pray that every single one of us would be stricken with soberness and seriousness of these things, that we would see that our eternal destiny is not something to be toyed with or taken carelessly. We pray, Father, that everyone here and everyone listening to us today will be brought safely home into your presence, and we pray that Christ would come soon. We do so in Christ's name, amen.