SPEAKER_01: You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: God is really pulling a practical joke on Satan.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he really is.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God's doing stuff and he knows the counter moves by the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: We don't, but he does.
SPEAKER_00: And if he does it, he's working out his plan.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big practical joke on what theologians have called the stooge of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Guess who the stooge of heaven is, Satan?
SPEAKER_00: He's a stooge of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for all that we've done, you know, spiritual warfare and all the terrible things that Satan does, the reality is he's just a stooge of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's just a puppet that God uses for his own glory.
SPEAKER_01: Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the Book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_01: At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_00: Want to welcome you to the road, and we are in the book of Revelation.
SPEAKER_00: We have taken a little bit of a segue away from Revelation to look at a series on what I'm calling the times of the signs.
SPEAKER_00: This is part four.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're coming in, I'll give you a quick summation of that.
SPEAKER_00: And then after this week, we'll be back in Revelation chapter 6, and we're calling it the Apocalypse.
SPEAKER_00: And we are looking at what the Scriptures say about the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What are the signs?
SPEAKER_00: What are the times of the signs?
SPEAKER_00: What are those things that we can look at and say, wow, Scripture really has spoken clearly about these areas.
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that we see in Scripture is this constant reminder by Jesus Christ to be alert.
SPEAKER_00: And the word he uses is be watchful.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of this idea of a thief coming to your home.
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you do, if you any of you have security on your home, you know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: If some of you are concerned about the safety of your family, you have to be watchful.
SPEAKER_00: And I have had the, I guess I'd call it the responsibility, privilege, as well as the soberness of having had people tell me that they were going to kill me.
SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of a sobering thought.
SPEAKER_00: And they were serious and they were people in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that exciting?
SPEAKER_00: But I was in a situation a number of years ago where I told a young man that if he followed into a particular situation, which was uh an adulterous relationship that I was aware of, that I would cut off all funding to his company.
SPEAKER_00: That uh 60% of the funding of that company came from our church because of the industry that he was in.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, You are done with us.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, so we had a very uh animated conversation uh over coffee one day.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he drank much of his, and I finished mine, I was fine.
SPEAKER_00: Um and I made him pay.
SPEAKER_00: But um but a few days later the word got out and the sheriff's department got hold of it, and I had, you know, I had armed guards at my gate there in Black Forest.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the the cool part of the story is that a year later um he repented of what he had done.
SPEAKER_00: He went back to his wife, they had divorced, and they got remarried.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he came to tell me.
SPEAKER_00: He came he actually came up to the front and grabbed me when I was coming down after speaking and just put his head on my shoulder and wept.
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, this is this is intense because I didn't know anything had happened.
SPEAKER_00: And then he told me what had happened.
SPEAKER_00: There was his wife, they had been reunited and gotten remarried.
SPEAKER_00: So it's really cool.
SPEAKER_00: So um, so be watchful.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we're in Revelation, is that we would be watchful and we would not be um frightened, fearful, overly concerned about what's happening around us.
SPEAKER_00: We say, oh, that's what that's what the Lord said would happen.
SPEAKER_00: It's right there.
SPEAKER_00: He he let us know thousands of years ago that there would be a day when you'd be tempted to be fearful, and you'd be tempted to be concerned, be watchful because the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: These are just the birth pangs.
SPEAKER_00: And when we get into Revelation 6 and 7 in the coming weeks, that's just the birth pangs of the coming of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even the great tribulation period.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll share with you increasingly as we move into Revelation what I believe about the rapture and what God's going to do in relation to the church.
SPEAKER_00: The Washington Post in 2013, and I quote, a new finding from a research firm that focuses on faith issues says that two-fifths of Americans believe we're living in the end times, living out revelation biblical principles.
SPEAKER_00: An estimated 41% of respondents in the Barna Group poll who were at least the age of 18 agreed that the world is currently living in the end times as described by prophecies in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So almost half of the United States of America has a keen interest in the book of Revelation, actually believes that it's going to be true in that survey.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the signs we've looked at.
SPEAKER_00: Five signs.
SPEAKER_00: We've covered four.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to cover the fifth today, and then we're going to go back into Revelation 5 in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_00: First, we talked about the homecoming of Israel back to Palestine in 1948.
SPEAKER_00: So we covered that several weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: Sign number two, the unification of Jerusalem on June 7th, 1967.
SPEAKER_00: The days of Jerusalem being trampled by the Gentiles, Luke 21, 24, has come to an end with the unification.
SPEAKER_00: That was the Six-Day War.
SPEAKER_00: Sign number three, the new internationalism or the new globalization happening.
SPEAKER_00: And I share with you that there's a positive and a negative to that, in the sense that even though we might see the world order forming for a one-world leader, it's also through globalization and internationalization that we can travel and preach the gospel because the scriptures are also clear in Matthew 24, that the whole world will hear and then the end will come.
SPEAKER_00: So we have this responsibility to constantly be sharing our faith wherever we go.
SPEAKER_00: Sign number four, which I covered last week, the great apostasy within the church.
SPEAKER_00: We are going to see churches, even among those that consider themselves biblical evangelical churches, apostasizing.
SPEAKER_00: And what that means is it's turning away from the doctrines of the faith, turning away from the scriptures, turning away from the great theological, theological, systematic theological statements that have undergirded the church for generations.
SPEAKER_00: And then sign number five today, the second coming of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: The second coming of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Revelation, six times, speaks of the city of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: It's described as a great city, the great Babylon, Babylon the Great, mother of harlots, the mighty city, and the abominations of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: What we may not realize is ancient Babylon was located in present-day Iraq, 59 miles southwest of Baghdad.
SPEAKER_00: That's where ancient Babylon is.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's been work, a lot of archaeological work recently, especially since the fall of Saddam Hussein.
SPEAKER_00: People can get in there now, archaeologists can get in there now.
SPEAKER_00: And I was I was fascinated.
SPEAKER_00: I hate when I'm like I'm studying and I'm like trying to get my study time done so I can move.
SPEAKER_00: The next thing I need to do, and then I do a video.
SPEAKER_00: I'll go into YouTube and I'll watch a video of ancient Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And so I was doing it this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I confess, I was not seeking the Lord this morning.
SPEAKER_00: I was watching a video of Ancient Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: But it's just fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I looked at my message and went, man, this is such a lame message, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, there's just so much stuff we could be covering.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just gonna scratch the surface of the rise of ancient Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to do more research on it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of really cool stuff.
SPEAKER_00: There's stuff out there that I'll just glance over in our look at Babylon today.
SPEAKER_00: But we might call, we might say that it's a tale of two cities.
SPEAKER_00: A tale of two cities.
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting that Jerusalem is the most mentioned city in all of the Bible, and it's mentioned over 800 times.
SPEAKER_00: But the second most mentioned city in the Bible is Babylon, and it's mentioned 290 times.
SPEAKER_00: First mentioned in Genesis 10, 11, and uh and in Genesis 14, Jerusalem, actually Babylon precedes Jerusalem in being mentioned in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Jerusalem is mentioned in Genesis 14.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon is mentioned in Genesis 10.
SPEAKER_00: And then Babylon is last mentioned in Revelation 18, and Jerusalem is last mention mentioned in Revelation 21.
SPEAKER_00: The ancient city is located on the Euphrates River in modern day Iraq near the Persian Gulf.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon first appears in Genesis 10, ends in Genesis 18.
SPEAKER_00: It is considered, now listen to this, Jerusalem is considered either even symbolically as well as in name as the city of God.
SPEAKER_00: And Babylon is considered and symbolic of the city of man.
SPEAKER_00: We might say of Babylon, it's seen as rebellious and prideful.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first city built after the flood, and it was the location of the Tower of Babel.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you look at a video, you'll see this ziggurat there that appears to be kind of a remake of what we think the Tower of Babel might have looked like.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting, Genesis 14.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to see the name Babylon, and you're not even going to see the name Jerusalem in Genesis 14.
SPEAKER_00: But ancient Salem or Salem, where we get the word Jerusalem, is in Babylon, ancient Shannar are mentioned in Genesis 14.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 14, the two cities are in conflict, opposite sides of a heavenly fence.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon attacks Jerusalem and carries away Abraham's nephew, Lot.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon represents both a city and a religious system in Revelation, and God destroys both.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, look at Revelation 17.
SPEAKER_00: And we're going to cover this in the months ahead when we get into Revelation 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: For you that are new to the road, I teach expositionally, so we go book by book, chapter by chapter, verse by verse.
SPEAKER_00: We're currently just on a sideline of these four weeks on the times of the signs, but then when we get back into Revelation and move through these chapters, we will cover this more in depth when we get to Revelation 17 and 18.
SPEAKER_00: But let's just look at a few verses here.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 17, 5.
SPEAKER_00: And on her forehead a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Then chapter 18, verses 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory, verse 2, and he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the earth who committed fornication and live luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, Thus with the violence of the great city Babylon shall be thrown down and shall not be found anymore.
SPEAKER_00: It's really interesting that as John is having this revelation, this city of Babylon is insignificant in the first century.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, Babylon and even Iraq have been insignificant for thousands of years, and only in the last 40 years has Iraq kind of risen from the ashes.
SPEAKER_00: Now at this point, and currently today, Babylon hasn't even risen from the ashes, but we're going to talk about what I think is going to happen in the days ahead.
SPEAKER_00: But once there was a time when Babylon was a great city.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: I can only scratch the surface because there's so much information.
SPEAKER_00: And what I would say if you're really interested in this stuff, some of you guys that are more historical, have a historical interest, just put in ancient, go to YouTube and just put in ancient Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And there's just, there's like 10 really good videos on it.
SPEAKER_00: So I won't come into a lot of that today at all.
SPEAKER_00: But from 605 to 539 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar and his successors were the great leaders of this empire.
SPEAKER_00: The Babylonians were the great, and I would, and the reason I say menacing, I'm going to call it menacing lion of Israel, because you can see today this phenomenal statue of a seated lion that has been excavated archaeologically that represents Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: So this idea of a crouch lion, a pacing lion is the symbol of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: And it was, and these ancient Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar were the menacing lion to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And they attacked Israel, Judah, three times.
SPEAKER_00: In their first invasion, Daniel was taken captive.
SPEAKER_00: In the second invasion, Ezekiel was taken captive.
SPEAKER_00: And in the third, the Temple of Solomon was destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of speculation.
SPEAKER_00: I get into this with my kids.
SPEAKER_00: My son is part of his degree at Azusa Pacific was in archaeology, and he did a dig in Israel.
SPEAKER_00: So when he and I get talking on this, it's like I get, he's like way ahead of me.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, so I'm always asking him the questions.
SPEAKER_00: He used to ask me the questions.
SPEAKER_00: Now I ask him the questions.
SPEAKER_00: So he may say when I get home today, Dad, that that's not accurate.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what they believe now.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, so I'm the expert right now.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: This is my pulpit.
SPEAKER_00: So, but so knowing that I am not an archaeologist, I will say that there's a lot of speculation about what happened to the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: And it's and it's really, if you if you follow that, if you I mean if you saw any of the Indiana Jones movies or anything, that's what that was all about, was the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of discussion about where that ended up.
SPEAKER_00: But there is some speculation that seems to be based in history that at the time of the Babylonians coming to it to the Temple of Solomon, that the Ark of the Covenant was whisked away and could be in Ethiopia now.
SPEAKER_00: And so there is actually a church right now called the Church of the Ark of the Covenant that is there, where these particular priests never leave the temple and they guard it at all times.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of speculation on that.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon is always depicted as a city full of sensuality and evil, always seen as opposing the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Revelation 17 and 18, which we'll cover later in greater depth, show a great and magnificent city that will be destroyed by God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, men and women, there's no Babylon right now.
SPEAKER_00: There is no there there is there is talk, and I'll talk about Time magazine in 2014 had an article about the UN with US dollars planning to rebuild ancient Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: So you can't destroy a city that doesn't exist, which means that the city of Babylon will be rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm saying is right now the United Nations is in discussion about that very thing.
SPEAKER_00: On Glenn Beck in 2014, Joel Rosenberg was being interviewed and explained that the rebuilding of ancient Babylon is in the planning stages right now.
SPEAKER_00: So that was just about two years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Joel Rosenberg references the rebuilding of Babylon in his nonfiction book called Epicenter.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to read Epicenter.
SPEAKER_00: So he's written a lot of fictional books about the last days, but Epicenter is actually one of his nonfiction books dealing with what's happening in the Middle East right now.
SPEAKER_00: Three main factors that indicate Babylon could be rebuilt, fulfilling in times prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you my summation, three reasons why I think this could happen.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, Iraq has become the focal point of the Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: Iraq has become the focal point.
SPEAKER_00: This is just remarkable, church, that here we have a nation that was a nondescript nation, not even really a big player on the world stage until about 1990 with the invasion of Kuwait.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it wasn't even on our radar.
SPEAKER_00: Even many of our military folks that are, that you know, are very aware of the Middle East, and of course they were very aware of Saddam Hussein, would not have put that as a high priority until the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
SPEAKER_00: And since then, it's in the news all the time, and it's playing a very, very key role.
SPEAKER_00: Joel Rosenberg says this in Bible prophecy, Iraq will emerge.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: I was reading this again, I was going, wow.
SPEAKER_00: In Bible prophecy, Iraq will emerge as the most peaceful and prosperous nation on the planet.
SPEAKER_00: And you're like, well, that, and you're looking at it right now, you're like, no way.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's why we're here.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Bible prophecy, that's why we have Bible prophecy.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Anna, when she was in the temple and she came and she saw Jesus as a baby, could proclaim the Messiah had come, was because Anna was steeped in biblical prophecy from the Old Testament of the coming Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good news?
SPEAKER_00: We will be rejoicing at things that are happening that politically and economically don't make sense.
SPEAKER_00: But God's working out his sovereign plan, he's painting the picture, and we already know what it's gonna look like.
SPEAKER_00: In Bible prophecy, Iraq will emerge as the most peaceful and prosperous nation on the planet, but how do they get from the chaos it has today to being the wealthiest nation on the earth?
SPEAKER_00: Something's going to change, and Babylon will be the capital of the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: First point.
SPEAKER_00: Number two Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Will be the perfect capital for a one-world leader.
SPEAKER_00: The name Babylon evokes notions of intrigue, mystery, pleasure, and power.
SPEAKER_00: In Webster's new collegiate dictionary, Babylon is defined as a city devoted to materialism and the pursuit of sexual pleasure.
SPEAKER_00: The Rolling Stones even had an album, if you recall, called Bridges to Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: I remember that, but that dates me a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not a Rolling Stones fan, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: I never was either, but I do remember that title.
SPEAKER_00: What better place for a one-world leader than right in the epicenter next to Israel than Babylon?
SPEAKER_00: The picture in Revelation 17 is the Antichrist, the beast, is riding on the back of the seductive city in the form of a harlot.
SPEAKER_00: Just as Alexander the Great attempted to make this ancient city his eastern capital, so will the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll study more about that.
SPEAKER_00: In 2014, the New York Times reported that Iraq has plans for the rebuilding of Babylon.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, Iraq, this is the most amazing one of all, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Iraq sits on the second largest known crude oil reserve in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Iraq's reserves are estimated at 115 billion barrels.
SPEAKER_00: Let's put this in perspective.
SPEAKER_00: Compare that with Saudi Arabia with 261 billion barrels.
SPEAKER_00: However, some believe and have written recently that Iraq may have as much as 300 billion barrels, which far exceeds Saudi Arabia, by the way, which would be 30% of all the known reserves in the world.
SPEAKER_00: With a new constitution and a growing economy, billions of dollars, yen, and euros will begin to pour into Iraq.
SPEAKER_00: This will result in the rebuilding of Iraq into an economic center in the Middle East.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe this will be the Eastern capital for this one world leader or the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so much could be said.
SPEAKER_00: But I just leave that with you and encourage you to do more studies into that.
SPEAKER_00: So these are the times of the signs that we're living in, church.
SPEAKER_00: Why does this matter?
SPEAKER_00: So turn in your Bibles to Matthew 24.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to remind us of why we're studying this and why it's important.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 24 is where Jesus is speaking of the last days.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that in the first part of Matthew 24, it's going to sound like Revelation 6.
SPEAKER_00: So we get to Revelation 6, we're like, wow, I've heard this before.
SPEAKER_00: Except it's more specific in Revelation to the general aspects of what Jesus talks about in Matthew 24.
SPEAKER_00: But here he sums up why this is important.
SPEAKER_00: Why we need to be aware of what the enemy's doing and what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you did practical jokes?
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have done practical jokes?
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you still do practical jokes?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's good.
SPEAKER_00: You should still do practical jokes.
SPEAKER_00: I think practical jokes are cool.
SPEAKER_00: I don't do them as much because my wife always says it's unbecoming of a pastor, so.
SPEAKER_00: But I used to do some pretty good ones.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I, I mean, I was sophisticated.
SPEAKER_00: Some of them were pretty sophisticated.
SPEAKER_00: But I remember you, you kind of, you know, what the thing about a practical joke is that you they don't really work unless you have a pretty good idea what the other guy's gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: So you kind of you set it up, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's kind of a setup time.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's kind of like a drama, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I used to think it was kind of like a play.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, if you do this, then they'll do that.
SPEAKER_00: If you do that, then they'll do this, and then bam, you know, you you you get them.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and everything.
SPEAKER_00: So I could tell you some, um, so many are coming to mind right now, but I've got us got time to think about here.
SPEAKER_00: We're still talking about the last days.
SPEAKER_00: Here's my point, though, is that God, I and I know this sounds a little crass, but don't take it the wrong way.
SPEAKER_00: But but God is really pulling a practical joke on Satan.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he really is.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God's doing stuff and he knows the counter move by the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: We don't, but he does.
SPEAKER_00: And as he does it, he's working out his plan.
SPEAKER_00: It's a big practical joke on what theologians have called the stooge of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Guess who the stooge of heaven is?
SPEAKER_00: Satan.
SPEAKER_00: He's a stooge of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And so, for all that we've done, you know, in spiritual warfare and all the terrible things that Satan does, the reality is he's just a stooge of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: He's just a puppet that God uses for his own glory.
SPEAKER_00: And so, and so God's doing this.
SPEAKER_00: But then what he does is he's written it down for us.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Look, here's the script.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how it's gonna work out.
SPEAKER_00: This is a briefing.
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving you a briefing about what's going to happen, and here's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: So look at verse 36 of Matthew 24.
SPEAKER_00: But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my father only.
SPEAKER_00: But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
SPEAKER_00: For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered the Ark.
SPEAKER_00: Now let me just say this: they were giving in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: So I've I've had people come to me and say, Well, you know, do you think in light of these things I should get, you know, be dating?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is is that, I mean, that I don't know, is that the best use of money?
SPEAKER_00: Yes! Please, date.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know these things for sure.
SPEAKER_00: But I'll tell you right now, it I'd love to go into it married, but rather than single.
SPEAKER_00: And so if God's blessing you with a relationship, then go for it.
SPEAKER_00: As long as it's of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll do the wedding, and I'll bless it in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you can go in your honeymoon and get ready for the Antichrist.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 40.
SPEAKER_00: Then two men, and this is speaking of the rapture, which I believe firmly in the rapture of the church, then two men will be in the field, one will be taken and the other left.
SPEAKER_00: Two women will be grinding at the mill, one will be taken, and the other left.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the key, verse 42.
SPEAKER_00: Watch, circle that, highlight that, underline that.
SPEAKER_00: Watch therefore.
SPEAKER_00: Watch.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he's telling us these things.
SPEAKER_00: Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour the Lord is coming.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the basic idea.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how history's unfolding, but I'm not gonna tell you everything because even I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: Now I think Jesus knows now because he's in heaven, but I mean when he was here on the earth and he and he was and he was bereft of some of his knowledge because he was fully man and fully God.
SPEAKER_00: He has that knowledge now.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you don't know exactly the hour, but you can kind of know the days.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm telling you this, verse 43.
SPEAKER_00: But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, you're that's who you are.
SPEAKER_00: You kind of know.
SPEAKER_00: You know it's coming, so be watchful.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna be one of those that's caught off guard.
SPEAKER_00: You can be rejoicing, you don't have to be fearful, you can be full of faith, for the coming of the Lord is nigh.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the most exciting time in the history of the world.
SPEAKER_00: The most exciting time, you get this, the most exciting time, the clock for the most exciting quarter of the fourth quarter of the fourth quarter of the two-minute warning of all of history, that clock started in 1948.
SPEAKER_00: That's unprecedented, and we're alive.
SPEAKER_00: If that doesn't get you pumped, I don't know what will.
SPEAKER_00: Broncos being 5-0.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is this.
SPEAKER_00: This is our time.
SPEAKER_00: And you've heard me say it before, I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's not the last days, it's your last days.
SPEAKER_00: Fully orbed, fully wholehearted.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says this, verse 44.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore you be ready.
SPEAKER_00: For the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
SPEAKER_00: So let me give you a couple things why I think this matters.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll just close with this.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, end times prophecy matters in order that we might be prepared and not surprised by fearful events.
SPEAKER_00: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, it causes us to set our priorities straight.
SPEAKER_00: One of the great church fathers in the mid-second century, Justin Martyr, an early Christian apologist, believed, listen to this, that the reality of knowing about Christ's return and the severe judgments that would follow should spur Christians to sober and faithful discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Justin wrote this: quote, marked out from the rest of the pleasure-loving human society by their conviction that the wicked will be punished in eternal fire and the Christ-like just, unified with Christ, free from suffering.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reason Christians are truthful in affirming their faith as well as the ground of their good citizenship and their ultimate fearlessness before the threat of persecution.
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, it helps us put into perspective our material goods.
SPEAKER_00: It helps us put into perspective our material goods.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than just storing up, we're also willing to give away.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just storing up that 401k till the cows come home, we actually, there's a part of us that realizes that we have a calling that the world might know.
SPEAKER_00: And that our giving is a part of our regular exercise of how we use our finances.
SPEAKER_00: Number four, it should have an urgency to the sharing of our faith with others.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Matthew 24, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Just turning your Bibles to verse 14, same chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what Jesus said.
SPEAKER_00: And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, the ethnos, every ethnic grouping, and then the end will come.
SPEAKER_00: So you and I, men and women, by pouring finances and sharing our faith.
SPEAKER_00: And this week, uh Mike Meekham and I and others, we prayer-walked all of Briargate.
SPEAKER_00: So we didn't we didn't do every street, but we did, we did almost except for one section, we've done the entire circumference of Briargate.
SPEAKER_00: So we went, we went down to Academy and then Academy to Woodman, all the way up Woodman to Powers, and then across over to Old Ranch Road, then Old Ranch Road down to Voyager, and then over and back down to Academy.
SPEAKER_00: So that's the circumference of Briargate, praying for revival, praying for awakening, praying for a move of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so, men and women, when you're at work, when you're at King Supers, when you're at 7-Eleven, wherever you are, ask the Lord, Lord, what are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing at 7-Eleven?
SPEAKER_00: He managed, what are you doing at 7-Eleven?
SPEAKER_00: You know, God's doing something at 7-Eleven.
SPEAKER_00: God's doing something at your favorite restaurant.
SPEAKER_00: God's doing something with that waiter and that waitress.
SPEAKER_00: And you, if you begin to pray this prayer, it's really exciting.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, whatever it is you're doing, I want to enter into what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: I want to flow with what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: Show me what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: He will! It's really fun to follow Jesus that way in discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of just like going through your day, oh, we go to church on Sunday, you know, and uh we're Christians.
SPEAKER_00: We believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then your whole lifestyle is no different than anybody else's.
SPEAKER_00: What a bummer.
SPEAKER_00: That's so boring.
SPEAKER_00: What a boring life.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it really is boring if you think about it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even get to do all the fun stuff that everybody else does because you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But then your life's really boring.
SPEAKER_00: Or we can flow in intimacy with Jesus Christ and say, Lord, I'm gonna follow you today.
SPEAKER_00: Where lead me where you want me to go.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, here's my here's my job, and you know, you gave me this job, and this is the Lord, and you tell me to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is.
SPEAKER_00: Give us this day or daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: You can, you know, I can't have bread without money, can't have money without a job.
SPEAKER_00: So you gave me this job.
SPEAKER_00: This is a job from you, and I rejoice that I'm supposed to labor in that job.
SPEAKER_00: But what are you doing at my job?
SPEAKER_00: What is it you're up to?
SPEAKER_00: Why did you send me to this job?
SPEAKER_00: If you start praying, Lord, I don't know why I'm here, I'm not real smart, but if you'll speak to me, I'll go and do whatever you want me to do.
SPEAKER_00: You just entered the greatest adventure of the Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: That's worth that.
SPEAKER_00: Because God will begin to speak to you and He'll begin to guide you into relationships with people who've been prepared by the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So I was lifting weights this week.
SPEAKER_00: I started, this is okay.
SPEAKER_00: I started exercising again.
SPEAKER_00: It's been years, and I looked at all that equipment when I walked into Villa and I went, this is really intimidating.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so I go in there and I start going, you know, 45 pounds.
SPEAKER_00: Benching, 50 pounds.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, I'm starting to get, I'm starting, I'm starting to look down and like, I can still see my feet, but I want to see all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, and so we started working out and everything, and and and I just felt like, you know, this is really gonna be boring.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna quit soon if I don't, A, start slow, and then B, it's gotta be something of the gospel here.
SPEAKER_00: And so um, just asking the Lord each time I go in, Lord, what what are you doing here?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing at Vela?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, who do you have for me to meet?
SPEAKER_00: And so I just keep meeting the coolest guys.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I really do.
SPEAKER_00: And I and I met a guy this week who um had a wounded warrior hat on and a wounded warrior shirt on, and dude looked like you know Arnold's younger brother.
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, So I needed a spotter, and I thought, I want you.
SPEAKER_00: I I have a feeling that my weight will be no problem for you to help me with, you know, and uh so he said, Yeah, I I know you're kind of old and everything.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, and he says, I'm 47.
SPEAKER_00: And I go, I'm a lot older than you, dude.
SPEAKER_00: A lot older.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, in the conversation, hearing of some stuff from his background as a combat vet that he was willing to share.
SPEAKER_00: It's exciting, and we'll see where God takes that relationship.
SPEAKER_00: So God's got relationships for us, man and women.
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna guide us and he'll guide you in these last days.
SPEAKER_01: You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.
SPEAKER_01: We hope you have been blessed by today's message.
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SPEAKER_01: Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.