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 times?” 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.)
A fourteenth foretelling of the future is found in II Timothy 3:1-5. “In the last days,” people will be “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God” (verse 4). The ideology of hedonism, with its focus on personal pleasure, is hardly novel. From Belshazzar to Herod, negative examples in the Bible abound. However, the recent governmental lockdown in our state of Maine perfectly illustrates this end-time evil. While liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries remained open, churches were forced to close. Pleasure was most assuredly placed high above God. That elected officials could make such decisions in favor of hedonism is troubling but not surprising, for it is a sign of the time of the end. Even without the support of the authorities, the pursuit of pleasure will continue to intensify. Let us be assured that “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). May we find our pleasure in His pleasure; may we seek to serve God and others rather than ourselves.