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Christ went out of the city of Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. His Disciples came to Him and asked him, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3). They joined the two questions together – What will be the sign of your Second Coming, and of the end of this age – the end of the world as we know it? Those questions have haunted the human race for generations. For thousands of years man has wondered when the world will end.

Buddhism teaches that life will go on in cycles, with no beginning or end. The Disney people presented a Buddhist view of history in “The Lion King” – with its “circle of life” theme song. But the Bible teaches a lineal view of time, with a definite beginning and a climactic end. Christ told the Disciples that the world will have a definite end. Christ said, “then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14). Christ told them that the world as we know it will end. Christ also told them that He would come a second time in the clouds near the end of this age. He said, “They shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).

They asked Him, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” They asked for a “sign” of His Second Coming. It has become popular to say that this passage refers only to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and that there are no signs of His Second Coming in the clouds (Matthew 24:30). But, if that was true, why didn’t Christ tell them there would be no signs of His Second Coming? This was the perfect opportunity to tell them there would be no signs. But He didn’t do that. Instead He gave them a number of signs of His Second Coming, and the end of the world as we now know it.

For the past fifty years I have been convinced that we are now living in what the Bible calls “the last days” (II Timothy 3:1). “The last days” refers to a time period immediately before the Second Coming of Christ. I believe we have been living in “the last days” all my life. The Bible says, “In the last days perilous times shall come” (II Timothy 3:1). I am totally convinced that we are living in the last days this morning. “In the last days perilous times shall come.” The Greek word translated “perilous” is “chalĕpŏs.” Strong’s Concordance says it means “dangerous, furious, fierce, perilous.” That word was used only one other time in the original Greek New Testament. It was used in Matthew 8:28 to describe the savage nature of two men who were possessed by demons. “In the last days perilous (dangerous, furious, fierce) times shall come.”

When we read the newspapers, or watch the news on television, it is becoming increasingly clear that we are now living in that fierce, furious, dangerous, demonic time in world history.

The Disciples said, “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” They asked for one great sign of the end. Christ did not rebuke them. But instead of giving them one sign of the end, He gave them many signs. Christ never told them the day, the hour, or the date. But He did give them a number of signs pointing to the general time of the end. We are going to look at four of those signs this morning.

I. First, there is the sign of false Christs.

Jesus said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:4, 5). Later in Matthew 24, Jesus said, “There shall arise false Christs” (Matthew 24:24). I am convinced that these “false Christs” are primarily demons. I hear people say that the Muslims believe in Jesus. But the Jesus of the Koran is not the Christ of the Bible. The Jesus of the Koran did not die on the Cross. Therefore the Muslim Jesus is a false Christ, a demonic Christ. The real Jesus has wounds in His hands from the nails that pierced them on the Cross. The prophet Zechariah told us that,

“One shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends” (Zechariah 13:6).

The Jesus of Mormonism is also a false Christ. So is the New Age Christ. So is the Christ of Hinduism. So is the Christ of liberal Protestantism. So is the Catholic “Cristo.” So is the “spirit-Christ” – the so-called “Christ” who is floating around in the air. The real Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Jesus said, “Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). I am convinced that these are demons masquerading as Christ. The Apostle Paul spoke of “another Jesus, whom we have not preached” (II Corinthians 11:4). In these evil days, you must take great care not to be deceived by a false Christ. The rise of false Christs is one of the signs that we are now living in the last days of this present age. Jesus said, “There shall arise false Christs” (Matthew 24:24; Matthew 24:4, 5).

II. Second, there is the sign of unending wars and rumors of wars.

Christ said, “Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom...” (Matthew 24:6-7a). Since the beginning of the 20th century we have experienced World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the War in Vietnam, the Cold War, the War in Iraq, and the War in Afghanistan. The Middle East is poised to explode in a series of revolutions and wars unprecedented in the entire history of that region At any moment war between Israel and Iran may become the worst nuclear holocaust in history. The world has been engulfed in more wars in the last 100 years than at any other time in human history.

Militant Muslims are invading Europe and the United States in alarming numbers. They are building mosques here at an unprecedented rate, even in the heartland, in places like Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the home of the Sword of the Lord! And many of their leaders are calling on Muslim youth to join in a Jihad, a holy war against Christians and Jews. Nearly every day we read in the news about Christians and Jews being slaughtered throughout the world by Muslim extremists. Wars and rumors of wars are one of the signs that the end of the world as we know it is near. Many young people realize that we are now living on one of the most dangerous times in human history. There has never been a time in history when there were as many wars and rumors of wars as there are today. It’s a world-wide phenomenon. It’s a sign that we are living in the “last days.”

III. Third, there are signs on the earth.

Christ said, “There shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places” (Matthew 24:7b). Christ also said, “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25, 26).

Have you noticed how the weather has changed in the last few years? The September 2012 National Geographic Magazine has a cover story titled, “What’s Up with the Weather – Summer in March, Record Floods, Endless Drought, Snowmageddon.” It also has a front page article titled, “Texas: The New Dust Bowl.” Inside the front cover is an article titled, “Weather Gone Wild.” It says, “Disastrous rains. No rain at all. Unexpected heat or cold. Is Earth’s climate changing dangerously?” The article says, “Rains that are almost biblical, heat waves that don’t end, tornadoes that strike in savage swarms – there’s been a change in the weather lately. What’s going on?” In Arizona “the biggest dust storm in living memory rolls into Phoenix...reducing visibility to zero. Desert thunderstorms kicked up the mile-high wall of dust and sand.”

In Switzerland “Frozen spray from Lake Geneva entombs cars and trees...during a severe cold spell in February 2012. An unusual dip in the polar jet stream, which looped as far south as Africa, brought Arctic air and deep snows to Europe, killing several hundred people.”

In Nashville, Tennessee it rained so hard that “the rain didn’t crest until Monday – at 52 feet, 12 feet above flood stage. Spilling into downtown streets, the flood caused some two billion dollars in damage.”

The National Geographic article continued by saying,

      There has been a change in the weather. Extreme events like the Nashville flood – described by officials as a once-in-a-millennium occurrence – are happening more frequently...a month before Nashville, torrential downpours dumped 11 inches of rain on Rio de Janeiro in 24 hours, triggering mud slides that buried hundreds. About three months after Nashville, record rains in Pakistan caused flooding that affected more than 20 million people. In late 2011 floods in Bangkok submerged hundreds of factories near Bangkok, creating a worldwide shortage of computer hard drives. It’s not just heavy rains that are making headlines. During the past decade we’ve also seen severe droughts in places like Texas, Australia, and Russia, as well as in East Africa, where tens of thousands have taken refuge in camps. Deadly heat waves have hit Europe, and record numbers of tornadoes have ripped across the United States...The rapid growth of megacities in developing countries in Asia and Africa has made millions more vulnerable to heat waves and floods (National Geographic, September 2012, pp. 30-53).

I know that some conservative politicians tell us there is no change in the weather. But they are wrong! Look at the photographs in the National Geographic magazine. Photographs don’t lie, though politicians often do!

On top of all that, the Los Angeles Times reports that “parts of the Mississippi [River are] down to one lane” (Los Angeles Times, August 23, 2012, p. A6). The report says, “The extended drought is making passage hard or even impossible for some river vessels...The drought has shut down harbors and forced barges aground as river levels drop.” Don’t forget that the Mississippi River is one of the most important channels in the world for importing and exporting food. Our statistician Dr. C. L. Cagan predicts that the drying up of the Mississippi River will cause world food prices to mushroom, triggering even more worldwide social unrest and violence in the next few months in poorer countries that depend on U.S. food supplies, as well as leaping food prices in the United States. Dr. Cagan says there will be an enormous rise in the cost of food in the next several months. Christ said,

Christ also predicted famines and pestilences as a sign of the end (Matthew 24:7). Christ also said,

“There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken” (Luke 21:25, 26).

IV. Fourth, there is the sign of worldwide persecution of Christians.

Christ said, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake” (Matthew 24:9).

Patrick J. Buchanan was a personal advisor to three Presidents. I do not agree with some things that he says, especially about Israel and the Jews. But Buchanan has given a report of attacks on Christianity that are true in his recent book, Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025? (Thomas Dunne Books, 2011). Buchanan said,

      The twentieth century has produced more Christian martyrs than any other. Between 1917 and 1960, there was Lenin’s Communist revolution and the rise of the fanatical anti-Christian Bolshevik state...Hitler’s Reich...and the Chinese, Vietnamese and Cuban revolutions, all of which sought to eradicate Christianity...Though not so brutally as did Mao, China still persecutes Christians. In South Asia, it is not the governments that carry out the persecutions but [Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist] fanatics. In August 2009, seven Christians in Gorja, Pakistan, were burned alive, their houses demolished by Muslim mobs seeking revenge for an alleged desecration of the Koran...In September 2009, the London Times reported on the “worst anti-Christian violence” in India’s history...at least 15,000 people displaced by mob violence...By October, Sky News was reporting, “Tens of thousands of Christians have been made homeless after an orgy of violence by Hindu hardliners.”

Buchanan also reported Muslim attempts to exterminate the Christians of Iraq. He then related Muslim attacks on Christians in Egypt, “that led to five days of rioting, arson, and destruction of Christian property.” In Mesopotamia only 5,000 of the original 100,000 Christians remain after brutal attacks by Al Qaeda Muslims. In Alexandria, Egypt “on New Year’s Day 2011 worshippers were blown to pieces [during a church service] by a [Muslim] suicide bomber. There were bodies on the streets. Hands, legs, stomachs. Girls, women and men.” “In March 2011 some ten thousand Christians in western Ethiopia were forced to flee when their homes were invaded and fifty churches burned by Muslims...Federal police sent to the region were overwhelmed by [Muslim] mobs... Attacks [like this] on Christians have been reported across Ethiopia, where Muslims make up one third of the population.”

American newsmen never tell us that these horrendous attacks on Christians come directly from the Koran, which tells Muslims to kill all Christians and Jews who will not convert to Islam. We are told that Islam is a peaceful religion. We are told to accommodate them. We are lulled to sleep like the British were in the 1930s regarding Hitler! At the same time that Catholic Georgetown University ordered Evangelical Christian groups off the campus, the University opened a prayer room for Muslims and hired a full-time Muslim chaplain! (Source: Suicide of a Superpower, pp. 114-122).

Hostility toward Christians is also rampant in the United States. Here are some of the findings of the Christian Post Reporter, given on August 22, 2012. The report includes 600 incidents of the persecution of Christians in the United States. Here are a few of them:

      An elementary school student was physically lifted from his seat and reprimanded for praying before his lunch.

      A student was reprimanded and told he could not wear a T-shirt to school because of its Christian message.

      A Christian couple was fired as apartment managers because a painting with a Christian reference was displayed in their office.

      A federal judge threatened to put a high school valedictorian in jail unless she removed a reference to Jesus from her graduation speech.

      City officials stopped senior citizens from singing Gospel songs at a senior activities center.

      A federal government official attempted to stop a pastor from praying in Jesus’ name during a Memorial Day service honoring veterans at a national cemetery.

      A federal judge held that prayers before a state House of Representatives could refer to Allah, but not to Jesus.

      A U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs official banned the mention of God from veterans’ funerals, overriding the wishes of the deceased’s families.

      Through Obamacare, the federal government is forcing Christian organizations to provide abortion inducing drugs in direct violation of their religious beliefs.

      Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Institute, said, “Our first liberty [freedom of religion] is facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups [which are] driven by an anti-religious ideology that is turning the First Amendment upside down.”

      Attorney Justin Butterfield said, “A lot of people think that...attacks on religious liberty are things that happen elsewhere in the world, not in the United States. [But] it actually happens with increasing and alarming regularity here in the United States.”

      The Liberty Institute is presenting this study before the Republican Party Platform Committee to raise awareness. (Source: Christianpost.com).

All of the young people in our church know by experience that Christianity and the Bible are repeatedly attacked by teachers in their high schools and colleges. One of our girls recently told me she was mocked repeatedly in class for being a Christian by a teacher in one of our state colleges. This happens with alarming regularity today. Jesus said, “Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9). The increasing attacks against Christianity are a sign that we are approaching the end of this age, the end of the world as we now know it (cf. Matthew 24:3).

You may ask, “Why, then, should I become a Christian?” The answer is simple: because Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died on the Cross to save you from sin and Hell. He rose physically, flesh and bone, to give you eternal life. Salvation does not come through Buddhism, or Islam, or Hinduism, or secular Humanism, or Bible-rejecting liberal Protestantism. Salvation comes only through the crucified and risen Son of God! The Bible says,

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Only through faith in Christ can your sins be pardoned. Only through faith in Christ can you escape from Hell, and receive eternal life! And one more thing – no matter how bad things get, we as Christians are on the winning side! When the flames, and wars, and turmoils end, Christ alone will be victorious! Christ is coming again to rule over this sinful world! Jesus said, “they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). “He is coming again.” Sing it!

He is coming again, He is coming again,
   The very same Jesus, rejected of men,
He is coming again, He is coming again,
   With power and great glory,
He is coming again!
   (“He Is Coming Again” by Mabel Johnston Camp, 1871-1937).

It is my prayer that you will trust Jesus and be saved. And I pray that you will come back and be with us next Sunday. I know it’s Labor Day weekend. I know that many will be running off to Las Vegas, which is often called “Sin City,” or some other place, to spend the weekend away from church like pagans. But, no matter what others do, I pray that you will have enough sense to be right here in church to hear the Gospel and have Christian fellowship. Those who live for sinful pleasures will be losers in the end. Don’t follow them! Be here in church, because we are on the winning side! The Bible says so! In the end,

“The kingdoms of this world [shall] become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

“He is coming again.” Sing it!

He is coming again, He is coming again,
   The very same Jesus, rejected of men,
He is coming again, He is coming again,
   With power and great glory,
He is coming again!

What Billy Graham said nearly fifty years ago is still true this morning. Billy Graham said,

      When the flood came, Noah was safe and secure in the ark. He had been foolish enough to trust God and take Him at His word. When the world goes up in flames, you can be safe and secure by believing and accepting [Christ]. This makes little sense to this dying world, but to those of us who are saved, it is the power of God unto salvation (Billy Graham, World Aflame, Doubleday and Company, 1965, p. 263).

Trust Jesus and be saved! And come back to church next Sunday! God bless you. Amen.

(END OF SERMON)
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Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Mr. Kyu Dong Lee: Matthew 24:3-14.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“In Times Like These” (by Ruth Caye Jones, 1902-1972).