Discerning the Signs but Looking for the Lord
I do listen. As I get older, I forget more easily, but I do listen to people’s concerns. In the last several years, a number of devoted Christians have asked me some form of the following question: “Are we close to the return of Jesus Christ?” As with any Biblical teaching, we must be careful with this subject. In Matthew 24:36, Jesus said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man.” Later, in Acts 1:7, He added, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.” Paul wrote in I Thesssalonians 5:2 that “the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” Thus, date-setting defies God’s Word and dishonors our Savior. However, in Matthew 16:3, Jesus pointedly asks, “Can ye not discern the signs of the time?” We do not know and cannot know the exact time of Jesus’ Second Coming and the resulting period of the Tribulation, but we are told to seriously study the signs found in Scripture. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
An eighth signal of the promised end is a disturbing emphasis on money and possessions. II Timothy 3:1-2 provides a loathsome list of “the last days.” Included in this litany of licentiousness and libertinism and lostness is the lust for loot and land; “covetous” is the low characteristic that I am singling out today. Jesus succinctly said in Matthew 6:24, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon [money].” This abiding principle runs counter to the lure of “filthy lucre” (I Timothy 3:3,8; Titus 1:7, 11; I Peter 5:2). As bad as man’s greed has been throughout history, it will be even worse as we approach the end. What will this pursuit of pelf look like? Revelation 18 provides a detailed (and sometimes gruesome) description. All will come crashing down quickly; “in one hour so great riches is come to nought” (verse 17). Let us instead heed the words of Jesus: “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:20-21).