Stand firm to be saved

The world is getting swallowed up by more and more perversion and all sorts of ungodliness. Christian faith is going to be tested. We can't pull back. We have to stand firm to be saved.

email: RuggedTruthGodsWord@gmail.com

God has a super huge plan. We all have to do our part as He assigns to us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, brothers and sisters in the Lord, and hopeful people going to be joining the family, the eternal family of God. This is Brother Rick, and I hope that the good Lord is blessing your day and you're still looking up because the Lord's going to return in the clouds just like He He left. I believe warm weather has settled in here in North Carolina, and I'm pretty happy with that. Not really looking forward to the to the humidity though. I like to talk about something that causes a lot of folks a lot of turbulence, a lot of trouble. I don't mean to be a uh causing trouble, just that I'd like to talk about it. It's something I've studied for quite a while, and I've prayed over it, and I've asked the Lord how to talk about it. It talks about uh what the Lord talked about in Matthew chapter 24, the Great Tribulation, and how that all Christians everywhere are going to be affected by it. A lot of folks think that we won't be here. Well, I don't know why they think that. We won't be here for uh the last half of it. We'll be here for the first half of it. A lot of folks say, well, he's a good God, a merciful God. He wouldn't put us through that. Well, he isn't putting us through it. Satan is putting us through it. Uh, God is good no matter if we're here in the tribulation or not. He is still good no matter what's going on. Here in America, we have a plastic Christianity. Really, it's not very strong at all for the most part. It really isn't. All over the world, people are giving up their life for Christ because people like Islamists are killing them. They think they're doing their God Allah, who is no God. Uh, they think they're doing Allah's work and doing things for Allah. Actually, they're helping Satan out, is what they're doing, by killing Christians, by killing Christ followers. The only true God is God Almighty and his Son Jesus Christ. I like to go over some things in the book of Daniel, and uh it's well, Daniel and Revelation both, in Daniel 7, it talks about there's a 10-king alliance, and uh three of the kings are going to be subdued by the eighth king, who is the Antichrist that comes up. And then the very next verse in verse 25 of Daniel chapter 7 talks about the holy people will be delivered into the hands of the Antichrist, as uh he talks big things against God. Then uh we go to Daniel uh 727, talks about uh that's when the millennium is going to be set up. That's just a thousand-year reign that uh, not just, but it is a thousand-year reign that Christ is going to be in charge of the world. And he actually hands the kingdoms over, kingdoms of the earth, over to his holy people, over to the true followers of Christ. And we will rule over the people that are still alive after he comes and defeats the Antichrist and the Antichrist armies. There'll still be people alive, just regular folks. And they'll start living pure lives and living long lives and hundreds of years, as it says in Isaiah 65, 20. It talks about that the uh people will live a long time. And back to Daniel chapter 8, verse 23. It says the Antichrist will be a fierce-looking man, he'll be a master of intrigue, just being underhanded, plotting and planning. And uh in 24, again, it says he'll destroy the holy people. A lot of folks say, well, that's going to be Israel. No, it doesn't have to be Israel. Christians are holy people. And then Daniel chapter 8, verse 25, talks about the Antichrist. He takes a stand against the Prince of Princes, against Jesus Christ himself. Well, I tell you, I don't I don't know how somebody thinks that they can stand against God Almighty. Except that Satan really, his big thing now is he wants to drag as many people to hell as he can with him. Because he knows he's on a short time limit. And in Daniel 7 and 25, and in 824 says the holy people, uh, our faith will be tested. And why wouldn't our faith be tested? Christ was murdered. People say, Well, God is good, all this won't happen to us. Well, sure it will. It'll be tested to find out who really is Christ, who belongs to Christ. And if Christ was murdered, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then uh eleven of the twelve apostles were murdered or martyred, as they say. Uh the only one that wasn't was John who was uh imprisoned. He was uh allowed to write the book of Revelation for us to have and to see and to read and to learn from and to ask questions of. And for now, uh here in America, we're we're protected and we're sheltered from persecution just for now. We think uh we'll be spared because God is good and he is merciful. Well, yeah, he's good and he is merciful, like I said. Um but we will uh suffer this. Uh America has fallen, if you haven't noticed. We're and once a nation starts falling, it doesn't stop. The brakes are off. Satan has jerked the chain and all the blocks that were keeping us from falling down the hill, where we're going down the hill. And we Christians here in America, we are spoiled. We are, and we're not living the life Christ wants us to live. If you look at the regular, just basic, what we call Christian, and I don't know who's Christian, God knows, but there's no difference from them and the people of the world. We're all following uh the God of money if we're not careful, and the God of fame, and the God of uh well-to-do, and we have to be careful, because persecution is coming, and we cannot deny Christ, or else we will be sent to hell with unbelievers, because we really didn't believe in Christ if we deny him and say we're not his just to spare our own lives. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 11, where it talks about that we triumphed over Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and that we did not love our lives so much as to shrink from death. So we've got to stand firm on our faith. And the time is coming when we will have to say yea or nay. And if you say you're not a Christian just to save your life, you're doomed. You're done. It's like what he was talking about in the parable of the sower. Like in Matthew 13 when Jesus himself told us that the seed falling on rocky ground, it's a people receive it with joy. Many people have many tears. Oh, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. But then once tribulation and trouble comes and persecution comes, they quickly turn and they fall away from the faith. That's what your faith will save you. And we hold on to Christ for salvation. We have to carry our cross daily, we repent of our sins. Sometimes it's a daily repentance if we're in a rough situation, but we keep repenting and we keep getting back up when we get knocked down, and we follow Christ. In Luke 13, what is it, three to five, Christ says that we have to repent or perish. And uh again in Luke 9, 23, Christ says that uh we have to take up our cross daily. We deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him. That just means follow his teachings, follow what he wants us to do. We love God and we love our neighbors, and we help as much as we can, and we pray and we read the word because Satan is right there ready to snatch people away, snatch their faith away. And again, I tell you that people that are saying that Christians won't go through the tribulation, they're wrong. Well, actually, tribulation's going on around the world right now. People are dying. The great tribulation just means it's going to be everywhere. And it's going to be a terrible time. And the only thing keeping Satan in check is the Holy Spirit in true believers, those that follow Christ and are willing to give up their lives for Him. We all have to be willing to give up our lives for Him. That's just the way it is, because that's how you prove that you have the true faith in Jesus to raise you. And it says that few will make it. So please, people, let's all try to be some of the few. What do you think? I wish everybody could be part of the few, but few doesn't mean everybody. Few means few. And in Matthew 10, 22, Christ warned us. He says that because we're following him, because we're following Christ, we'll be hated by everyone. They'll come up with this, oh, we're we're uh so biased and we're so narrow-minded. Well, yeah, we kind of are. We follow Christ. We don't follow any other way. I heard Oprah Winfrey say, uh, all roads lead to God. No, they don't. They lead to the judgment of God if you're not careful. And to finish up the verse in Matthew 10, 22, uh Christ says that we have to stand firm on our faith to be saved. That's a pretty big statement right there. We have to stand firm on it, brothers and sisters. And Christ gives us yet another warning. He's warning us all the time that this stuff's going to happen. Because it is going to happen. And we've been sheltered here, but it's happening right now. Christians are being murdered just for the fact of being Christian. And uh in Matthew 24, 9 to 13, Christ says it again. He says it uh will be handed over for persecution and to be put to death. And because of the persecution, many, many, he says, Christ says it himself, many will uh turn away, they'll fall away from the faith, and they'll betray and hate each other. They'll be saving their own skins by turning in other Christians, I betcha. And it he warns us again that uh many false prophets will start popping up, popping up like daisies, saying uh wickedness will increase in the world, because the love of most, not a few, of most will grow cold, and the ones who stand firm will be saved. In the book of Daniel, uh uh chapter 9, verse 20, he talks about uh uh the seventy-sevens. He's talking about groups of years, and uh there'll be uh in Daniel 9, 26 and 27, there'll be the last one, the last group of seven, seven years. This will be used up during the time of the Antichrist when he sets up a peace agreement for Israel, and uh uh because Israel has peace, Satan can't get at it. Well then he turns his wrath toward Christians for the first three and a half years. In Revelation uh chapter 12 and verse 6, it talks about that Israel, who is the woman in this chapter, a lot of symbology in Revelation, but she'll be protected for twelve hundred and sixty days, and that's right near three and a half years, folks. So we have to be prepared and be careful because it's truly going to happen. We're gonna be here for the first three and a half of it, and we'll be tested, and some of us will be put to death. And this is the first time uh in history that Satan hasn't been able to persecute Israel, so he is really angry, and he comes after the others that follow Christ. And again, in Matthew 24, uh verse 9, uh uh, well, in 24, Christ talks about that the great tribulation be one like uh has never been before. And in verse 9, he says that uh uh we will be persecuted, handed over uh to death. What is he talking to people that don't believe? No, he's talking to believers. He's talking about those that follow him. A great falling away will occur, he says in verse 9, Matthew 24, verse 9. And this also goes along with uh Daniel uh chapter 11 and verse 32 and 33 when the followers will be handed over. Now I'm sorry this has had to have been so heavy here, brothers and sisters, but our time is getting shorter and shorter. You can tell that America is getting more and more wicked. We're falling away more and more and more, and people aren't trying to come back. We're not the Christians that are here, we're we're trying to hold our own, but Satan has such a foothold now on America, and he has her by the hand, leading her to the to the rocks. This ship is gonna crash, and it's gonna crash with a mighty crash, a sinking ship, America will be. And I love you, and I have to tell folks that this is gonna happen, and it's true, it's in the word. Look it up for yourself. Don't believe me, look it up for yourself. People say, oh, you're not, we don't have to go through it. Yeah, we're going to go through it. We are going to go through it. I promise you we are. And please be prepared. Be prepared to stand for the Lord, stand against this wickedness. And when things come up, uh, like we've got to stand against homosexuality, stand against abortion. Christians, we love the Lord. We love life. We don't love death. And both of those are disease-ridden and death. The homosexuality is disease-ridden and death, and the abortion is just murder, death, child sacrifice. And nations have been snatched away from themselves and given to others because of child sacrifice. Look that up. Well, I've got to get off of here. I I wanted to say this, and uh it's time is short. But I love you. That's the reason I say this. And I pray the good Lord save your souls and his face shine down upon you. And until next time, this is Brother Rick signing off, and I love you in the name of Jesus Christ.