Sign #4: The Rise Of One World Religion

The great historian, Arnold Toynbee, said “The nations of the world would eventually unite, either by force or by federation, and they’d be kept together by a common religion.”

As you may know, this happens to be number four in a series of message entitled Seven Signs of Christ’s Return, and today we come to “The Rise of the One World Religion.”

When I was at the Parliament of World Religions in 1993 here in the Palmer House in Chicago, a speaker one evening said, “Imagine all the religions of the world to be like a wheel.” He said, “At the level of the rim we are all different, but when we come to the hub,” which he defined as the clear blue of sky, “it is there in the mystical center that we are all united.”

Let me simply say this. We can even say in a preliminary way that first of all, when we think about a one-world religion, we obviously know truth will always be sacrificed for the sake of unity. Because people will say, “We have to be united, and what really gets in the way of this unity is all these people who believe in truth.”

As a matter of fact, Mortimer Adler, I wish I had the quote with me. I don’t but he said, in effect, “Religion can do a great deal of good in uniting the world as long as no one thinks they have the truth.” So as long as we don’t have the truth, that’s no problem, but those who think they have the truth, they’re the problem.

Secondly, tolerance will become a national icon. It already is. In fact, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the value of a view today is not its truth content, or not whether or not it can be verified, or whether or not it is rational. The thing that makes it special is it is so tolerant of other positions. Because of that we have people who think to themselves, “As long as I am willing to include others, whatever it is I think is right and is right for me just because I think it. The very thought that I have means I must be right.”

Let me give you five characteristics today of end-time, one-world religion. Two passages of Scripture, both absolutely crucial that you turn to in your Bibles. The first is 2 Thessalonians 2. It is speaking about Antichrist because even in those days the people in Thessalonica thought maybe Jesus had begun His wrap-up of prophecy. Maybe the end-times were beginning, and maybe the return of Jesus Christ, the glorious return, may have been near. The Apostle Paul wants to set them straight.

This is 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and I need to pick it up there, “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” I take this to be Antichrist. 2 Thessalonians 2:4, “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.”

The first characteristic of end-time religion is unrestrained idolatry. You can worship whatever you like, but you can also worship people. You are going to worship this man of sin. The people of that day are going to do that because he himself will claim to be God.

Now there are three possible views of God. One is atheism, to say there is no God. There are a few of those folks around. The other view is theism. That’s what we believe, a God exists who is independent of the world, a personal God who created the world. Then there is what is known as pantheism. Pantheism says all is god, and god is all. It is characteristic of eastern religions, and nobody can believe that one is god, actually in the sense of being the creator. But if everything is god why then indeed, we can say even we are god. That’s why you have Shirley McLain running out onto Malibu Beach shouting, “I’m god, I’m god, I’m god.” Colson, remember, said, “Aren’t you glad she’s wrong?” [laughter]

You’ll notice in the text it goes on to say, and we need to skip some verses here, but skip to             2 Thessalonians 2:11, “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is [the lie].” What is the lie? The lie is that man can take the place of God. It’s the lie of Eden where Satan said to Adam and Eve, “You shall be like God, like Elohim.” That’s the lie.

End-time religion is going to be characterized by this idolatry because idolatry is simply setting up something else other than God. It doesn’t mean bowing before wood and stones and things you created. It means simply that you worship yourself and you take yourself into consideration first without reference to God. That is idolatry because the Bible says, “Thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength.” If you don’t love God that way you are an idolater, and self in the New Age style gets put in the place of God.

Nowadays the big problem is not sin. The big problem is sadness. You’re not supposed to be sad. If you are sad, what you should do is buy certain pills and certain medications because nobody should ever be sad. You’re supposed to be happy, happy, happy. If the people around you don’t make you happy, you make yourself happy because you are the center of your universe. Like the curriculum taught in many schools, it’s entitled, “It’s all about you.” “I, I, I. My happiness. I can determine what I want to do. I can even heal myself. I can become rich. I can do whatever I want to do.” Rampant idolatry.

Let’s go on to a second characteristic of end-time religion and that is rampant spirituality. We live in a very, very spiritual age. When Cindy Crawford married Rande Gerber out on a beach, she said, “We wanted a spiritual ceremony without it being religious.” Spirituality, but no religion, and most assuredly no God religion of Christianity, but spirituality, nevertheless. It’s all over the place already and I think it’s going to be a part of end-time religion.

Look at what the Scripture says here in 2 Thessalonians 2:9. Still speaking of the same man who is going to do all these things. By the way, what we talked about a moment ago is really the end time, the final stage of end religion. It’s not quite what we see today as we’ll notice in a moment. You just stick with me and that will become clearer. But here we have also now unrestrained or rampant spirituality. 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10, “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false (If you are in the habit of underlining in your Bibles you might like to get these three words now) signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing.”

Why did I say you should underline those words? Those are the very same three words that are used in the New Testament for the miracles of Christ. These are counterfeit miracles. People today are doing miracles, and miracles are everywhere. A miracle-crazed world will believe Antichrist when he pulls these things off.

Because of some other studying I am doing I went to the library and checked out the book, A Course in Miracles by Helen Schucman. I was interested—you shouldn’t read books like that, but I needed to do some research to find out the origin of the book. She said she heard voices. It was almost as if someone picked up the pencil and wrote this book for her. Sometimes, she said, it was terrifying, but she knew the voice must be saying good things. Thousands and thousands of people have taken her course in miracles and have performed their own miracles. We live in a miracle age. Everybody’s into miracles. Everybody accepts them.

Then, of course, we have to understand the distinction between the good miracles and the bad miracles. That’s very difficult for us to discern. Sometimes it’s almost impossible to tell the difference. In the Old Testament there’s an interesting story. Moses was able to do the miracles of God, and he threw down his staff—for the benefit of the people who are sitting behind me you have to understand when he threw down his staff, it means like a pole or something like that [laughter].

“He threw his staff onto the ground,” the Bible says, “and it became a serpent.” Then Pharaoh got his enchanters, and his soothsayers, and his people who do magic arts together, and they did essentially the very same thing. The Bible says they threw their rods onto the ground, and they also became serpents. In fact, the most shocking thing is Moses spoke, and the Scripture says the Nile River turned into blood, and the fish died. Then the text says—I just read it this morning to confirm it: “and the enchanters did the same thing” (See Exodus 7:113). They followed Moses, miracle for miracle. Then at a certain point they couldn’t outdo him, but what deception. This world, this age, is filled with deception.

Angels are all over the place. Angels are doing things for people wondrously, beautifully, rescuing people. People who do not necessarily believe in Jesus. The angels are there to do all those good things, and they’ve got to be good angels because they’ve done good things. That’s the age in which we live. My dear friends, when demons appear, they don’t appear like demons. They appear like angels. That’s what the Bible says. It says Satan is transformed into an angel, not a furious being that comes and says, “I want to destroy you.” He’s an angel, sent to do good things, to deceive.

What is another characteristic of end-time religion? Unrestrained spirituality—psychics, astrologers, books on how to get plugged into whatever. I noticed at an airport the other day a book on talking to heaven, a medium communicating information from the other side, and teaching people how to get in touch with their spirit guides. My friends, those are demons they’re getting in touch with. It’s all there already and when Antichrist comes on the people, the world will say, “Yeah, yeah, we can do them too. He’s doing bigger ones.” He’s doing the same thing Jesus is doing. Unrestrained spirituality.

Third, unrestrained immorality. This is part of end-time religion. Unrestrained immorality. For this I have to ask you to take your Bibles and turn to Revelation 17. Now when we read this chapter, and we’re going to be reading the opening verses, you’re going to say, “Pastor Lutzer, that’s not fair. It’s not fair for you to just dump us right in the middle of the book of Revelation, with all of this symbolism. Here you have a woman who is riding this beast. What in the world is going on here?”

We need to understand this is end-time religion because it ends again with the coming of Jesus Christ and the destruction of this religious system. The book of Revelation actually recapitulates. It goes back over some of the same territory only looked at in more detail, just like the book of Daniel does. So, I want you to hang in with me. We’re not going to interpret all of it, but enough of it so you see where it is I am going.

Revelation 17:1–6, “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.”

Who is this woman? A couple of comments. First of all, this woman, this madam, who is riding the beast, is a religious figure. She’s a religious figure, the mystery Babylon. You need to remember Babylon was the seat of occult religion, the ancient seat of religion. Throughout the Scriptures it talks about Babylon being symbolic of all occult religion. As a matter of fact, they tried to build the tower that would go to heaven, and they wanted to worship the stars, and they were into astrology, and into all of those things. As a matter of fact, at least twenty different techniques used today by the New Age movement were already rooted as practices in Babylon. False religion.

That false religion even influenced Christendom. For example, they had a mother-child cult. You can read this in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah speaks against this. He says, “You are bringing incense, and you are baking bread for the queen of heaven.” He condemns the people for doing that. What happened is when Babylon shut down and the Persians came, they said, “We don’t want you to practice all of these abominations.” The Persians had a different religion, so the people went to Pergamum where the occultists all gathered. In Pergamum they built a huge altar. In fact, in the book of Revelation it refers to it when it says, “To the church that is at Pergamum, I know you are where Satan’s seat is.” The great altar of Pergamum. Where occult religion was performed, and people were sacrificed.

Would you be surprised, if I were to tell you that your pastor and his lovely wife have walked on the top of that altar, of Satan’s seat? I think we prayed on every step before we did it, but it’s in Berlin. In the 1920s German archeologists went and they excavated it. They took it stone by stone, column by column, and they built a museum in Berlin large enough to house it—and there are some other things there also from Pergamum. But it’s called today, The Pergamum Museum. It includes even the Ishtar Gate. The actual Ishtar Gate of Babylon is there as well. It’s in the museum.

Here’s what happened. The ancient religion of Babylon came to Pergamum, and through Pergamum influenced the Christian church. I mentioned a moment ago in the Old Testament, Babylon, they said, “We are worshipping the woman, the queen of heaven.” The queen of heaven. That very expression, if you can believe it, was applied to Mary. That kind of worship went on there too. Babylon has to do, first of all, with false religion. She is a religious figure representing the religion of Babylon.

Secondly, she is also a political figure. At least she’s tied into politics. Now notice this. She is riding the beast. What is the beast? The beast is Antichrist. We’ve learned that from previous messages. It talks about the beast being thrown into the sea. I should say the sea of flames, and we went through that in the previous messages. Here you have an ecclesiastical system that is riding and in cahoots with the political ascendency of the great leader, Antichrist, who is going to rise, I take it, out of Europe, out of that ten-nation confederacy. They are together in this for a while. It doesn’t end that way. That’s why you need to wait. Before you go home today, you have to wait until this message is over. It’s not going to be like that. But I’m ahead of the story.

She’s a political figure but she is also a very immoral figure. Notice, and I read it a moment ago, we’re in Revelation 17:4, “Holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.”

Now folks, I want you to listen to me very carefully. Everybody awake at this juncture. I know you are awake at every juncture, but at this one. Whenever you have rampant idolatry and rampant spirituality cut off from the Scriptures, you will always have rampant immorality. For this reason, God made us sexual creatures, and sexuality is to be expressed between a man and a woman in marriage, in terms of its expression, period.

When you leave the Bible, you see, and when you come up with your own religion, and you are God, and you bow before the cult of self-worship and your god, you’re going to want to fulfill every single desire your body has. After all, you only go around once in life. Consequently, sex will be cut off from love and marriage. In the immortal words of Tina Turner, “What’s love got to do with it?” It is cut off from love and marriage, and therefore several things happen immediately.

Number one, it will always lead to perversions, all kinds of terrible perversions. Not just the marriage of the same sex, but child molestation. You know, when the text says here, “Come and I will show you the great prostitute,” in Greek it is, “I will show you the great pornē,” from which we get the word pornography. Who could have ever possibly believed pornography, which was largely hidden in the fifties, came out on shelves and newsstands in the sixties and seventies, and now is in videotapes. Then, to make matters worse, what bondages are being developed because of the Internet.

As a staff, we hear reports of young people getting involved in pornography and eliciting and twisting desires they never even knew they had. So now suddenly they are beginning to feel—“Well, I’ve been watching homosexual pornography.” Therefore, they begin to have homosexual feelings, or lesbian feelings, or child pornography leading to a desire for children. Everything that is imaginable is now available, and curious people are being hooked. What an expression. The abominable things and the filth of her adulterers.

I need to simply tell you today, if you find yourself involved in that deadness, and pain, and emptiness, and secrecy, please go to somebody for help, would you? Somebody who can pray with you, someone to whom you can become accountable. So that you can be pulled out from that awful, awful pit because it is too strong for you to get out of alone.

I want you to notice the first thing that will happen is it will always be perverted, and secondly, it will always be abusive. Recently I read a report that makes your heart just weep. You say, “O God, how can you look upon this planet?” Of young girls, maybe as young as thirteen, fourteen becoming sex slaves. Not just in other countries but in America. Then being taunted with fear that they have to live this life, and they feel dirty, and they feel demoralized, and they feel as if there is no hope. They think to themselves most assuredly, “There is no way out of this.” They’re told their families and friends do not care about them and this “gemeinschaft,” this community is going to take care of them. Oh, my dear friend, listening to me today there may be some of you who fit into that category. Would you go for help? Would you make sure there is someone to whom you can confide so you can get out from under the terrible, terrible grip of sexual emptiness and oblivion?

What is going to be characteristic of end-time religion? We don’t have time to go into this in detail, but our sexuality is so much a part of our spirituality. Sexuality and spirituality are really intertwined the way God designed this. It will always lead to rampant immorality.

There’s another characteristic, and that is rampant brutality. You’ll notice it says there in    Revelation 17:6, “I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.”

We know throughout history, there has been the blood of the saints. I think, for example, even of Rome. First of all, the Christians were killed by the Roman Empire. They were taken and thrown to the lions because of the paganism of Rome. Then after the Christians were empowered, the true church continued to be persecuted until groups like the Donatists were literally wiped off the face of the earth because of persecution. But that’s nothing in comparison to what’s going to happen in the future. Because the Bible tells us there’s going to be a time. You say, “Well, how do you know this all relates to Antichrist?” If you were with us last time you remember Revelation 13:8 where it says regarding the beast, “All who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.”

It says the same thing in Revelation 17:8, “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.” The point is, once again, we have all of these people being martyred because of the religion of the beast. Unrestrained brutality.

You know the New Age movement today prides itself in its tolerance. As I already mentioned, you can believe anything you like about anything you want, and that’s perfectly fine just as long as you don’t think you have the truth. Let me read what one of the writers says, “The plagues of revelation are a special package of karma visited upon the obstinate, that they might awaken to the wrong attitudes. Animals that don’t adapt become extinct. Remember survival today means understanding and responding to change within the context of the internal revolution.”

Erwin Chargaff—that’s an interesting name, Erwin—the father of bioengineering said, “I see the beginning of a new barbarianism which tomorrow will be called the new culture. Nazism was a primitive and brutal and absurd expression of it. Nazism was the first draft of the so-called scientific or pre-scientific morality that is being prepared in our radiant future.”

Unrestrained brutality. Don’t be taken in. The fact that the New Age movement and other movements will take place before the Lord comes—in light of the fact that they are so, so open, and so inclusive, and so intolerant. That’s not going to be true for those who belong to the Lamb, I can assure you.

Fifth, unrestrained audacity. I needed a word there, so I chose the word “audacity.” They take on the Lamb. They are going to fight. We don’t have time to go into the details of what this is all about, but there is evidence in the text that the woman, is actually Rome. You’ll notice that it talks about the seven hills in Revelation 17:9, “This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.” However, they are also seven kings, and so interpreters have some confusion about that. You’ll notice the last verse of the Revelation 17, the woman you saw as the great city that rules over the kings of the earth—we’ve talked about the revival of the Roman Empire. But the fact is this, Jesus comes and He wins. The audacity to take on the Son of God.

I’m going to pick it up at Revelation 17:14. In Revelation 17:12, you know the horns, we quoted that when we talked about the message on the revival of Rome. You see how this all fits together—the ten horns, I should say they correspond with the ten toes that we spoke about, and so forth. But Revelation 17:14, “They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

Before we get to that and wrap that up, there’s something else that needs to be said in context. That is Revelation 17:15 and following because this is now a back flash. He’s receiving an interpretation of the vision. We must ask ourselves, “What happens in the end?” Do you know what happens in the end? The beast, Antichrist, actually destroys this woman. There’s a very important reason for it. Let’s pick it up at Revelation 17:15–16, “And the angel said to me, ‘The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages (she’s going to have a tremendous amount of power). And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.’” Why that? I thought Antichrist and false religion were in cahoots. The woman was riding the beast, and now Antichrist rises to destroy her.

Listen, the purposes of God. This is breathtaking. The other thing I find about the Scripture, you know, no man could have put all this stuff together. The reason is because this jives exactly with the Apostle Paul, what he says. It jives exactly almost word for word with Daniel predicted. Listen. It says the purpose of God is this. “For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17).

What’s going on in the text? Here it is. As Antichrist uses false religion—this eclectic religion where you can believe whatever you want just as long as you don’t have the truth—as he begins to use it towards his own ends, as it nears the middle of the Tribulation period when he goes into the temple and declares himself to be God, as the Apostle Paul says, he’s going to say, “I’m going to put down all the other religions.” Because Paul said and Daniel said that he will oppose all other religions and oppose all those who would be gods. Why? It’s because he wants all the worship to be concentrated and focused on himself alone. Even New Age religion will be banished. There is only one God and that is Antichrist.

Why? Satan’s desire has always been to mimic Christ. He knows Jesus is the Lord and before Jesus every tongue shall confess He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And there will be no other gods tolerated. I’ll tell you, in eternity there’s only going to be one God, and none other will be tolerated.

What Antichrist says is, and Satan, of course, whose puppet Antichrist is, he says, “For one moment”—maybe he calls it a shining moment but it’s a very dark moment. For one moment he wants one man to rule. He wants one man to receive the worship of the world. Just like Christ is going to receive the worship of the world, for one moment he wants his man to receive all the worship of the world, and all other religions must be destroyed and abolished.

Well, how does it end? Oh, I’ve got such good news that this was worth coming to church for. Maybe it’s not been worth it till now, but it sure is now. We didn’t take time to read it but in            2 Thessalonians 2:8 it says regarding Antichrist, “The Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth.” It’s done, the lake of fire forever and ever.

By the way, did I read it too quickly for you? Did you notice the text says we are going to be with Christ when He comes to destroy Antichrist? I need to make a couple of other comments before I show you that in the Bible.

Three words come to mind I want to leave with you today, and this comes from your pastor’s heart to you. We’re one on one, we’re sitting in my study, and I’m talking with you. The first word is discernment. My dear friends, when Jesus was asked, “What is going to be the sign of your coming?” in the book of Matthew 24, He referred to earthquakes and wars and everything, but He talked about false religion two or three times. He said, “Many shall come in my name saying, ‘I am Christ,’ and they will do miracles and signs and wonders and deceive many.” If possible, to deceive the very elect.

Jesus said someday people are going to come before me and they’re going to say, “Have we not done miracles in Thy name? In Thy name we have cast out demons—in Thy name.” You say, “Well, Pastor Lutzer, surely any miracle that’s done in the name of Jesus is the right one.” Listen. “In Thy name we have cast out demons,” and Jesus will say, “Depart me you workers of iniquity.” Wow.

How close is Satan willing to come to deceive the elect? Those who have apparitions, who say, “Jesus came to me,” it could indeed be Satan himself, and they think they’re serving Jesus, but they’re so deceived that what they do is iniquity. Oh, the deception out there.

I knew someone who attended a faith healing service to be healed, and he came home healed. Isn’t that why you go to faith healing services? Isn’t the whole purpose so that your sore leg, which he happened to have, is healed? But he noticed something. Along with the healing comes this sense of spiritual oppression. That’s interesting. So he rebukes the oppression and rebukes the devil, and his sore leg comes back.

I think of my good friend, Reverend McCloud. You know he’s been with us. He’s going to be with us again. He’s one of the most godly men. I mean I don’t even know how he got into the meeting. Next time he comes we’re going to have to ask him. But here he is. He’s part of a lecture group given to doctors, to the medical community. Somebody comes from overseas and shows films on how they can cut somebody open, take out all the organs, rearrange them correctly, put them all back, sew up the skin, and then take a sponge and just go over the skin, and lo and behold he’s healed. You can’t even tell where the incision was.

So, McCloud raises his hand during the discussion time. I’d like to have this videotaped. And he said, “Jesus Christ said that except a man be born again he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. What do those words mean to you?” And the man’s voice changed, and a spirit obviously, speaking through the man, said, “This is the third time I visited the earth and I’m not going to answer your question.” End of discussion. End of lecture. End of party.

My dear friends, we live in a day and age when, if possible, they could deceive the very elect. You’ve heard me say it so many times, and the fact that I know I’ve said it many times shows I’m still okay, you know. If I say it many times and I don’t remember I’ve said it many times, then your pastor’s really got some problems. But I’m not there yet. I’m just on my way. [laughter]

My dear friends, not everything that is miraculous is from God. Jeremiah was almost deceived by a prophet who came to him and made a prediction regarding Babylon. It’s in Jeremiah 28. Jeremiah was almost carried along with this false prophet until the prophet was revealed to be a shyster and was put to death after a matter of months. There’s so much deception out there. Don’t believe everything that is miraculous. Don’t believe every angel. Don’t believe every miracle. Discernment.

Secondly, suffering. Listen to this. The further America moves away from the gospel, from the Bible, and accepts the cult of self-absorption. The further that happens, the more tolerant it will be to every imaginable deviancy either in conduct or in doctrine. But the less tolerant it will always be to the true followers of Jesus. Of necessity. Jesus said, “You know, that’s okay.” He said, “They hated me. They’ll also hate you.”

I guess I’m asking those of you who work in offices, and factories, and hospitals, and all the rest, are you willing to witness for Christ? And to take a little bit of flack because you belong to Jesus? Accept it. You say, “Well, does that mean then that what we should do is just pity ourselves? Us poor Christians. Oh no, the Press is against us. They always distort everything we say, and the law is against us, and they want to cut this out, and the poor people.” “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11–12).

My dear friend, as the noose begins to get tighter, and our options become less evident, we rejoice. We rejoice. We rejoice. Let’s take a little flack for Jesus.

Number three, anticipation. That’s the third word. C. S. Lewis says if you’re planning to get married you have to understand Jesus may come before the wedding. He may in terms of the rapture. You know, today we’re talking about the return of Christ in terms of the glorious appearing and all this Antichrist, but he may come. He says, “Therefore it is much more important for you to be ready to welcome Christ and His return than it is for your marriage plans.” Well, that’s interesting. Isn’t that the way it should be?

Paul says, “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing”        [2 Timothy 4:8]. You do love His appearing, don’t you? You say, “Oh no. You know, I’m so young. I still want to prove my ability to be in business. I want to make sure I finish college. I want to get married.” No, no, no. You love His appearing, and then if He lets you do the other things that’s fine, but you want His appearing first.

A little girl was taken to the top of a skyscraper, and as they were passing about the sixtieth floor she said, “Mommy, does Jesus know we’re coming?” [laughter] No, we don’t know, I’m sure He knows how far we’re going to get, but the real issue is, do we know He’s coming?

I promised you a text, didn’t I? I read it to you a moment ago. This is Revelation 17:14. “They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.” That is us, folks, in glorified bodies by then with Jesus taking part in the battle and enjoying the victory. Wow, what a prospect.

Those of you who live in little towns, you know sometimes those little towns don’t have a lot of communication. I know because I was born near one where the train came into town once a day. There’s a story that’s a true story, about a man and his dog. Dogs really do bond to people. I’ve noticed people bond to cats. Cats never bond to people. Now, you cat lovers, no email please, no faxes, no letters. I’ve got more mail than I can possibly read, so just accept that. I’m just telling you the truth. Don’t comment on it. [laughter]

But there is something about dogs that really bond with their masters. This dog’s master died and was put into a coffin, and the coffin was shipped away on the train. According to friends, until the day that dog died, he met the train at the station every single day.

Maybe today my Master is coming back. Maybe today He’s coming back. Oh, that we may be ready. Let’s pray.

Father, we are reminded of the words of Scripture in light of the fact that these things shall all be destroyed. In light of your coming, what manner of people ought we to be in all godliness and holiness of the truth?

We pray today, Father, for those whose lives are so, so misdirected, either because they’ve never received Christ as Savior, or believers who have wandered into every false path and sin imaginable. Bring your people back today, Father. Some are too weak to come back. Some don’t understand the value of the blood of Christ, so they don’t think they can come back because they sin so much. Bring them, Lord. Show them the beauty of Jesus and may they come.

Oh Father, the work that you’ve begun, don’t let us go until it’s finished. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Editor’s Note: In this transcript, the verbatim intelligent transcription process simplifies and enhances spoken content by eliminating redundant words, unnecessary sounds, fixing grammar errors, and clarifying meaning while preserving the author’s original intent. All Scripture quotes are according to the biblical text, not as they were originally spoken.