Dr. David Jeremiah – A Biographical Prophecy: End Times People (Pt. 1)

A Biographical Prophecy: End Times People (Pt. 1)

If you think the human race seems to be falling more and more into sin and
depravity, you’re not alone. Dr. David Jeremiah examines this downward spiral and
how it might be the fulfillment of an end times prophecy.

Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

And thank you for joining us today. Have you heard people say recently?
It just seems like people are getting meaner than they’ve ever been or I don’t know, it just seems like people are not like they used to be, they’re not as good as they used to be.
Well, I’m not really sure how accurate our uh evaluation of all of that is, but I can tell you this, the Bible says that in the end times people are going to be different and let me tell you something, they’re not gonna be better.
There are 19 descriptions of people in second Timothy chapter three that describe the kind of uh personnel environment that will be here on this earth as we draw closer to the return of Christ.
And I’m here to report some of it’s in action already. We’ll get to it in just a moment.
But first, let me remind you that during this month when you send a gift to turning point, we want to send you a copy of where do we go from here?
A 240 page hardback book with 10 chapters to help you take an honest look at the critical and troubling issues of our world today against the backdrop of the Bible.
And uh it’s yours for a gift of any amount to turning point.
When you ask for this resource, we’ll send it to you right away.
Well, we are ready to start part one of this biographical prophecy.
The scripture is second Timothy chapter three and the discussion begins.
Now, Sean Hopwood grew up in a Christian home in rural Nebraska and he had parents who had started a local church.
He was the oldest of five Children and he was bright and excelling on standardized tests.
He also played basketball in high school and won a scholarship to Nebraska’s Midland University.
But in his teens, Hopwood grew disillusioned with his basketball skills.
He stopped going to class and he dropped out of school.
Then he joined the United States Navy and ended up in the Persian Gulf guarding warships with shoulder mounted stinger missiles.
But Hopwood developed acute pancreatitis almost died in the Bahrain hospital and he left the Navy with an honorable discharge.
That’s when lost, overtook this young man.
His alcohol and drug use grew into raging addictions and he became depressed one day while drinking with a friend, they decided to rob a bank together.
Why not? They could use the money. They ended up robbing five banks while armed afterward.
Hopwood squandered the money on parties and eventually his life came crashing down in the lobby of a double tree hotel in Omaha, Nebraska.
When FBI agents tackled and arrested him.
A year later, he stood terrified before a federal judge who sentenced him to more than 12 years in prison.
And shortly thereafter, he was on a prison plane, handcuffed, shackled, heading to a federal penitentiary.
He was only 23 years old and his life was growing worse and worse by the day.
Now, if you stay with me, I’ll tell you what happened to him at the end of my message.
But his story raises questions for all of us.
Why do people go the wrong way or in a broader sense?
Why do good people do bad things for thousands of years. People have been debating those questions.
Sociologists and laypeople expend huge amounts of air and ink trying to determine if human beings are basically good or fundamentally evil according to scripture, sin is the fundamental problem of every person.
Romans 3 10 says no one is righteous, not even one, no one is truly wise.
No one is seeking God. All have turned away, all have become useless.
No one does good, not a single one. That’s from the new living translation.
Our problem then isn’t just that we live in a sinful world which we do but that we live in a world full of sinful people because our sin affects everything in our lives.
The Bible makes it clear that we are all corrupted by sin.
Every one of us that corruption entered our bloodstream through Adam and Eve who rebelled against God in his garden.
And the blood disease of sin has descended through the generations and it affects all of us today.
The Bible says therefore, just as through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sin because we have been stained by sin.
In this way. Every one of us, the Bible says, there is an unrighteous, no, not one.
We cannot produce anything good on our own, collectively, individually or without me, you can do nothing. Jesus said.
So the blood of Christ and the spirit of God must unleash their power in our lives.
If we’re to be Godly people, God can come into a prison cell.
He can take the life of a person who’s going the wrong way and totally change him, but only God can do that.
There’s no other program that you can go to.
God is the only one who can offset the impact of original sin sin that started in the garden.
So what that means is you and I live in this war zone. We call planet Earth.
We’re pushed and pulled between goodness and evil, between love and hate, between creation and destruction.
You and I are Christ followers in a fallen world.
And that has been true for God’s people throughout all the centuries. But can you feel it?
Can you sense it? Something is changing. The bad is getting worse.
Godlessness is overtaking every institution, every platform, every square inch of our culture because something in us is broken.
We live in a world of sinful people.
Better said we live in a world of broken people and the Brokenness is becoming everywhere more evident to us as time goes by.
What does this mean?
Well, I want to show you a prediction about the last days that will put all of this into prophetic context.
I want to quote from a letter written by another prisoner, this one on death row and he wasn’t there for robbing banks.
He was there for preaching the gospel.
The apostle Paul wrote his final letter to Timothy from a Roman cell near the end of his letter.
He drew a surprisingly detailed picture of how people will behave just prior to the Lord’s return and the beginning of the tribulation period.
So I’m going to read that letter and see if you don’t resonate with what he said. 315.
But know this that in the last days perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers without self control, brutal, despised of good traitors, headstrong hot, lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, having a form of Godliness, but denying its power.
And then if you jump down in this passage to the 13th verse, here’s what it says evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
So we’re not just imagining this what’s happening right now.
Is it just something that I, I haven’t known many evil people before? So maybe I’m just meeting.
All right now. No, the Bible says that there will be a trajectory toward the coming of Christ.
When sinful people will be more sinful, evil people will be more evil and difficulty in relationships and all the rest will be more profound, worse and worse.
The scripture says with those three short words, Paul predicted people will descend into a rampant and accelerating godlessness as we approach the tribulation.
Please note the Apostle’s focus is not on bad times but I’m bad people.
As John Calvin wrote many, many years ago, the hardness or danger of this time is in Paul’s view to be not war, not famine or diseases, nor any of the other calamities or ills that befall the body, but the wicked and depraved ways of men.
You know, it’s an interesting thing.
Nobody knows how good a person can be and nobody knows how bad a person can be.
Paul gave us 19 specific character descriptions of what people will be like.
In other words, here in second Timothy three, the Lord gives us 19 expressions to depict the nature of godlessness.
In the last days, the things we should expect and not be surprised by.
I can’t bore in all the 19 words.
And I’m not going to do a 19 word word study, but I can show you a pattern in Paul’s words that move from selfish people to splintered families to shattered societies.
First of all selfish people right up front, the Lord tells us that the last days will be populated by people who are lovers of themselves, narcissistic people.
People who see themselves in the mirror and applaud according to Paul, the days before the tribulation will be perilous because people will love only themselves.
They will according to the scripture, be boasters and proud and blasphemers.
These people love to talk about themselves and to build themselves up.
Such people want everyone else to love them as much as they love themselves.
They write their own press reports, they pad their own resumes.
When you finally meet the person in question, you hardly recognize them.
These are proud or haughty people, which means they’re disdainful toward other people.
Looking down on others comes as naturally to them as it does to a pigeon on top of a statue.
Perhaps nothing represents this attitude better than social media, Facebook, Twitter, youtube and Instagram allow us to constantly crow about our own success while simultaneously slashing away at the achievements of other people.
Often through anonymous comments and online bullying. Social media is a stronghold for selfish people.
Unfortunately, selfish people rarely keep to themselves.
You watch what’s going on right now in our culture and how we are treating one another selfish people, selfish people end up being a part of splintered families.
Paul goes on in Timothy and talks about how the increasing selfishness of the last days will manifest itself in selfish people and those selfish people will unavoidably result in damaged families.
People will focus less on their loved ones, their time energy and passion will be tied up in themselves.
And the result was, as Paul said in the days prior to the tribulation, tribulation will be strewn with broken homes.
And he uses five descriptions and I’m not going to talk about all of them for very much.
But I want to show you how interesting it is in the text of the scripture itself.
These five descriptions highlight the damage that broken people perpetuate on their own families.
In the last days, it says they are disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving and unforgiving.
Those are the five things that are in the text.
And I want you to know that when ancient Greek writers wanted to say something negative, they took a positive word and put a letter in front of it called the alpha privative.
The alpha negated the positive word. You see the principle in English.
When we say something is distasteful, we take the word tasteful and we put a prefix in front of it and that prefix negates the word.
All five of Paul’s terms about the family included in the paragraph are alpha primitives.
All five describe a positive attitude that has vanished from most families.
During the last days, Children will be disobedient, willfully, they will do what they want to do.
Casting off oversight and authority. They will ignore the instruction of scripture that says Children obey your parents in the Lord.
For this is right, they will be ungrateful.
God will be a thankful spirit between Children and their parents. That lack of gratitude will extend to other relationships.
The third word is unholy in this context that implies lack of respect.
There will be no respect within the structure of the framework of the family.
The picture is of someone who throws off the oversight at all levels of authority and harbors a growing sense of rebellion and independence.
If you want to know what that’s like, go talk to the first public school teacher, you meet and ask them if they know what we’re talking about.
Next. We come to the word unloving.
Normal human relationships will be destroyed and broken and affected and wither away.
The word here is translated elsewhere in the New Testament.
As heartless homes will become hard places ruined by harsh hearts and will spill over into the whole society.
And the final word is unforgiving, which could also mean truth breaker.
This refers to people whose rebellion becomes stubborn and hard hearted.
The root of bitterness within them grows into an emotional forest of poisonous trees, bearing toxic fruit and the lack of capacity to forgive others means they live as though they themselves could never be forgiven for all the harm they’ve done by now.
You may be wondering, is this going to keep getting worse and worse or is this going to be a whole negative sermon?
No. Let’s take a breath of fresh air. Let’s take a moment and turn this around.
If the ungodly world is characterized by these negatives, how should God’s people live in the midst of it all?
It’s very simple. Our grammar has to change.
We should leave off the alpha primitive in Christ. It’s not appropriate to negate a virtue.
Our homes should be filled with obedience, between Children and parents.
Family should be filled with gratitude and defined by respect.
They should exude a natural love and affection and we should be able to trust each other.
We have to work hard to avoid the alpha privative lifestyle. You probably never heard that word before.
But here’s a new term. Don’t be an alpha privative family.
Don’t be a family that negates all the virtues that you’ve been given by Almighty God.
We must be doggedly committed to biblical marriages and kingdom families, whatever has happened to you in the past start where you are today and with God’s help, make your home a place that’s indwelled by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Make it a Christian home. So are you getting this picture when you have selfish people?
They end up creating splendored families and splintered families, create shattered societies.
Now I’m going to do something right now that I’ve fought with myself all week as to whether I should do this or not.
So, I’m not really sure whether I should do it, but I’m going to do it.
So, one of my favorite preachers is Tony Evans. I love Tony Evans, believe it or not.
When I graduated from seminary, I went back and I taught some postgraduate courses and Tony Evans was in my class.
My great claim to fame was I was Tony Evans teacher for one semester.
And so everything good about him, he learned from somebody else. If he’s messing up, it’s my fault.
You know that don’t you, Tony and his family have been friends of ours for so many years.
And I love to hear this man preach because what an orcher he is when he goes off on one of his orations, he just bell binds you.
And I heard one in one of his messages recently that totally illustrates what I’m talking about and I can’t be Tony Evans.
So don’t get your expectations up. But I’m going to tell you what he said.
If you’re a messed up man and you have a family, you’re going to help make a messed up family.
If you’re a messed up man, contributing to a messed up family and your messed up family goes to church, then your messed up family is going to make its contribution to a messed up church.
If you’re a messed up man, contributing to a messed up family, resulting in a messed up church causing a messed up neighborhood.
And your neighborhood is part of a city where you messed up neighborhood is going to make its contribution to a messed up city.
If you’re a messed up man, contributing to a messed up family, resulting in a messed up church causing a messed up neighborhood that resides in a messed up city.
That’s part of a messed up county and your county is part of the state.
Well, your messed up county is going to make its contribution to a messed up state.
If you’re a messed up man contributing to a messed up family, resulting in a messed up church causing a messed up neighborhood that resides in a messed up city.
That’s part of a messed up county contributed to a messed up state and your state is part of the country.
Well, guess what? Your messed up state is going to make its contribution to your messed up nation.
And if you’re a messed up man contributing to a messed up family resulting in a messed up church causing a messed up neighborhood that resides in a messed up city.
That’s part of a messed up county that’s contributing to a messed up state.
No, your messed up country is going to make its contribution into a messed up world.
So do you get that?
I wish I could do it like him, but I can’t.
But I love the way he does it and love most of all his point.
It starts with individuals, doesn’t it? We look around, we say, oh, this, my church is a mess.
Well, you probably had something to do with that. Right.
If you’re looking for a perfect church, you even find it, don’t go there because you mess it up.
And so, you know, we’re always looking for some corporate answer to the problems, but the problems are ours, our families are what we create them to be our counties or what we allow them to be our cities.
It’s all about us. So unless we’re willing to take insight on ourselves, we don’t have much of a chance to get better, do we?
So we have selfish people, we have families that reflect on the selfishness of the people in them and then those families go into churches and cultures and societies and the society becomes what the family is.
So what do we do with that?
I mean, in this message series, I’ve been trying to tell you here’s where we are, here’s what that means and where do we go from here?
So here’s the end of the matter.
How do Christians live in such a place where selfishness reigns and immorality increases?
How can we be a different kind of end times people in a broken world?
Let’s take a page from Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography, Franklin described the darkness that filled the streets of Philadelphia during his day, it was pitch black at night and people were sleeping on the streets and they were stepping into mud puddles and stumbling over rough stones and even worse crime was growing.
It wasn’t safe to be out after sunset.
So Franklin waged an intense campaign to persuade everyone to light the area around their own house, but he got nowhere.
Finally, he just did it himself, but only in front of his own house, he planted a pole in front of his porch with a kerosene light on top of the pole.
That night in the city of Philadelphia, there was one house bathed in warm glow, the lamp cast light on the street giving passerbys a feeling of well being and safety.
But the next night, another house had a lamp and then another and pretty soon almost the whole city was lighting the walkways in front of their houses.
At night. Franklin learned something. He learned that our example is often greater than our words and our admonitions.
And that’s what we need to learn with that in mind.
I want to lift you out of Second Timothy and take you to Ephesians five.
And this is the passage that says for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
That sentence is short enough to memorize, but it’s powerful enough to illumine the pathways around your life.
Amen. Amen. We, we don’t have to condescend to the attitudes and the spirit and the antagonism down anger that you see so often today among people, we can be a light in the darkness.
We can show a different way.
And uh when the night is as dark as it is right now, our lights are shining pretty bright.
If we keep them lit, keep them fueled. That’s what we need to do.
By the way, you feel your light through the word of God.
And one of the ways that happens is by going to church, by being under the sound of the word of God and interacting with other believers and growing in your faith.
If you’re in a small group, that’s another great thing.
Keep the light burning, keep the resources available so you can keep shining in this darkness.
Never been needed more than it is right now.
Friends, we are getting all excited about March of 2024 when we will go to Israel and we’re going to invite you to go with us.
If you go to our website, go to David Jeremiah dot org slash events, you can see how it’s all laid out and find out whether you can do it.
We’d love to have you and we’ll see you right here tomorrow.