Signs Of The Times

Zoe Christian Fellowship of Long Beach ZCFLB

Praise the Lord church. We are going to continue on today, and today’s message is titled Signs of the Times.

We have to take a look and see what‘s going on as it were in the Holy Spirit chronicles, to read the Word of God and how it’s impacting us today. I submit unto you, and I’ll show you in the Word this morning that the Lord has set up signs to indicate what He’s doing in the world, and we need to be able to understand and read those signs to see what God is doing so that we can be in tuned with God, so that we can always know what’s going on. God is not mysterious to his people if we stay in fellowship with Him, amen?

Turn with me to the book of Genesis 1. Say amen when you’re there. Praise the Lord…signs of the times. Now here in Genesis 1, if you’re there say amen? Praise the Lord. The Word of God tells us here in Genesis 1:14 it says, “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.”

So what God said here now… what happened is, He set up the lights in the heavens and the stars and for us locally here, the sun and it be for a sign when there is day; when the sun is down, the moon is up or the moon can be seen, it will be night. And actually, what we do is we measure our life by that. We tell one day from the next. We use the time for the earth to make a rotation as a 24 hours, we divide our day. People in the old day use a sundial to tell what time it is.

So what happened is God has set a president and He says in his Word here that He’s using part of nature to go ahead and tell us, and use it for signs. He uses for seasons, for days, and for years, amen? What happens is, now since the fall of Adam, all of creation is off balance. See, when God created the earth, He made everything was good. Look further down here in Genesis 1:30 “And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

So what happens here, God tells us when He created everything, everything was VERY good, okay? And so, there was as it were perfection, praise the Lord. But man through Adam and Eve — disobedience caused everything to fall off whack, wasn’t functioning as it was designed to function. We weren’t functioning as we were designed to. We were created to have a relationship with God, to love God. We were to be holy and to live without sin, but Adam and Eve made a mistake and it is passed on to all of us, but praise the Lord He has a plan of restoration, amen? But during this process of restoration, we are going through a process where now we have to get back to that and praise God through the shed blood of Jesus, He has made a way for us, but everything is out of whack.

Take a look here in Genesis 3. Now the fall of Adam and Eve He says here in regards to what’s going on, Genesis 3:9 He says, “And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Here is the first time we see where man was scared to be in the presence of God, he hid himself. God used to walk with Adam in the cool of the day. There was a relationship. There was fellowship. Verse 11, “And He said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.”

Here is the first time God is cursing anything on earth. We saw before that that everything was very good. So now here in the earth there are things that are functioning out of order. He continues to go on here, and “…art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake.”

I want to just make a point here. The earth at first was created very good; but, because of man’s fall, now the earth has been cursed, the ground has been cursed. And what happens the ground, we plant a seed in the ground it was to give us an abundant harvest, here it was plentiful. Now the earth does still give us a harvest, but not the way it should be. It’s in a diminished state, in a fallen state, is cursed and you know what? It impacts us, because we impacted the earth because of Adam and Eve’s sin. This is going to play a very important role because all of creation desires to be back into his rightful state, the way God originally created it.

Look what He says here, “Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

So what happened here now, man is in a fallen state and the planet that he inhabits is being cursed, is in a fallen and diminished and weakened state. And what happens is, the earth is actually groaning to return to its pristine state.

Turn with me into the book of Romans 8:19, signs of the times, amen? Now here in Romans 8, say amen when you’re there, starting here in verse 19, the word of God tells us, “For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”

What happens here is the Bible tells us for all of creation groans for the adoption of sons of God, meaning in this whole chapter 8, that when we are restored man is restored back to its rightful place, being adopted because of the blood of Jesus, make that sons of God, all of creation will be restored too, amen? But right now the earth is corrupt; it’s in a fallen state. Man is in a fallen state, but the Lord said I will use signs, natural signs and He will use those signs to indicate what’s going on.

Let’s see in scripture where God has done this before, amen? Turn with me to the book of Matthew 2. Now here in Matthew 2, let’s see what we will find here. God is using signs, Matthew 2:1, “Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star”

Wait a minute, didn’t we just read back in Genesis 1 that he will use stars for a sign? Here we go again now where men who knew the signs of the times, saw the star to lead them to the Savior, what happens here? “Saying, where is He that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.”

Now if God is using signs to show when Christ was born and people who knew the signs they knew where the king of the Jews was born and they came to worship. God is still using signs to indicate what the times are saying, and that we may come and worship. Verse 3, “When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, and thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel. Then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, enquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.”

So by the star they knew Christ was born. At this point Christ is a child, so the star had been showing for awhile because they followed it, but those who didn’t know the signs didn’t know about the Messiah. The king Herod didn’t know, but he was very interested in what the times were saying. Verse 8, “And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found Him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.”

So what happened is, here we see a clear sign where the Lord told us in the book of Genesis that He will use stars and signs, natural wonder to indicate what is going on as it were the Holy Spirit chronicles of the signs of the day. Here we see the star led them. The wise men followed, and Jesus was a young child, He was an infant. It led them right to Jesus’ house. I submit unto you today, that there are signs pointing us to Jesus, but those that know the signs were the ones who will be led to the Lord Jesus Christ and those who don’t, won’t know what’s going on. They will be oblivious to him, amen?

Turn over to the book of Matthew 16 with me; so we see a star there pointing and giving us insight and direction, amen? Now Jesus is talking to people about signs, natural signs and wonders. Here in Matthew 16: 1 the word of God says, “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, when it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?”

Now noticed that Jesus talks if He would…I think you understand the natural signs and reason, yet we should also be able to understand spiritually the signs of the times. Very important, the Lord Jesus spoke about this, verse 4, He said “A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And He left them, and departed.”

What Jesus is telling us is that we should be spiritually in tuned already. We should already…you’re not be going to beg to the Lord to show me this and show me that. If you’re following the Word, like you guys are doing today coming out to hear the preached Word of God, getting deep into the scriptures like we’re doing, following what God is doing. We are going to have spiritual discernment, amen? Amen. See, that’s the difference following the leading of the Holy Spirit. What are you doing actively in the world today? Because there’s a lot going on, but we need to be astute, spiritually astute to what’s going on.

Let’s look at another scripture about signs going on in the Bible that God has used before. Turn with me to Matthew 27, now when Jesus died there was a sign and this sign pointed Him as being the Messiah. Turn with me to Matthew 27:50, “Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Now when the centurion and they that were with Him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, truly this was the Son of God.”

So when Jesus died, there was an earthquake and they saw all that happened and the Romans who saw said, “We had messed up. This was truly the Son of God,” but what pointed to that? The signs of the earthquake, because before there was an earthquake they killed Him, and they thought they were doing right, but immediately following the earthquake was great. It rent the veil on the temple in two. Actually, an angel rent it from the bottom up. The earthquake, people came out of the tomb, they said, “Oh, we’re messed up. This is the Son of God,” but what was used? A natural sign.

Let’s take a look here in Matthew 28, “In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and His raiment white as snow: And for fear of Him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not you: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen. And he said, come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

So when the angel came to remove the stone what happened? Another sign. What we see here, as I told you before, the earth was created by God and it was created good. There were no earthquakes from God because the earth was perfect, but because of the corruption of man’s fall the earth literally cracked in various places. We call them tectonic plates, continental plates, and it’s constantly slamming into one another in nature. So here along where we live in California, around the pacific ocean, Japan, Australia, South America, we live on what we call a circle of fire, the ring of fire where the big Pacific or Pacific Plate that bumps into the continental plate of the United States, that bumps into the Asiatic plate over by Japan, but God has constantly used natural signs to show what He is doing.

Now some of these earthquakes are just natural, but God also is having things to show spiritually. But you know what, it’s pointing to Christ because this didn’t happen when earth was originally created, it was perfect. God reviewed the earth and He said, “It is very good.” All of this is occurring because of the fallen state and the corruption that man has placed upon the earth, amen?

Let’s take a look here in Matthew 24, these all signs, right? Natural signs, signs of the times. Here in Matthew 24: 1 the Word of God says, “And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and His disciples came to Him for to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See you not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

Jesus has given His disciples telling them future events. Verse 3, “And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” What are they looking for? Signs. They say show us the signs, “And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.”

You know now, Jesus was telling, many will come as Christ. You know what He is saying in there? There will be many religions pointing to salvation, pointing to a way of God and shall deceive many. Now, I was just reading this morning and a guy praying and go home and seen in LA Times, but it was talking about now what is going on in the state of Utah that they were celebrating Hindu religious holiday in Utah, and a lot of Mormon people there were saying, according to the article, was somewhat they were involved in it and helped even build the temple. And I said, wow, that really surprised me. And I am saying– this is based upon what I read in the paper now, so that’s the only evidence I have, that’s what I’m going by.

But they showed the pictures of the people celebrating and I said okay. This is why a lot of American type people and also I saw some Indian people there, I saw the big Indian temple, they’re all doing this Hindu holiday and I said, whoa. Where is the true Christ in this? A lot of people are saying here is Christ and shall deceive many. A lot of religion saying we have the way, but they will try to push away from the true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is where we’ll be careful. We need to stick with Jesus and Jesus only. Jesus, the one in the Bible, the one who died, not some very verse that Jesus equals all these other religions, no. Jesus stands totally separate and apart from everything else.

He says here, signs of the end, right? They wanted signs, “Take heed that no man deceive you.” So what’s happening in one of the signs at the end is deception. Mass deception on a world stage, “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.” As one of the signs we should be looking for, amen? Verse 6, “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars” that means there is going to be fighting going on all the time and even more talking about even possibly having more. Signs of the times, okay?

“See that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” In other words, when we see these stuffs happening, we shouldn’t be surprised. We shouldn’t — He said, don’t worry, don’t be troubled. These things must take place. Why? Because we know the Lord’s coming back. See, actually, when we start seeing these happen, we just start getting happy because our Lord is coming back and all these kingdoms of the world been setup is for Him, He is taking it all. Don’t get worried, it might be tough coming up, but your salvation draws nay.

He said when shall we know that you’re coming back? What are the signs of your return? I want Jesus to come on back, amen? If you know Jesus, you want Jesus to come on back, because this stuff is crazy, okay? I don’t want this to continue on. I am looking for the Lord to come back, but these are the things that we should be watching for. Now let me say this, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, nobody knows and Jesus knows. But we know the signs. Now, there’s always been wars, okay? There’s been some heinous wars. We’ve had 2 World Wars, okay? But it’s not just only the war that we have to look at. We have to look at the deception. So the first thing he mentioned wasn’t war, it was mass deception on a global scale. It’s starting to happen.

If you’re starting to notice, have you noticed outside of — let’s say there’s about a billion Christians, about a billion Muslims, about a billion Hindus, and then there the other religions, Buddhism, Zen, some other various religions, anonymous religions, but what’s going to happen is those religions are going to start to kind of join up together, so maybe Islam. You start to see them more and more, start to work together. I mean, I believe what I saw this morning, Hindus and Mormons? Hindus and Mormons, and I said whoa. If you already believe in Christ why would you be participating in that, but you’ll start to see more of that, okay.

Then Christ talks about wars, verse 7, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.” He said earthquakes in diverse place would be one of the signs. Now, there’s always been earthquakes, since we’ve known about earth, as we have been living in so far. Why would that be a sign? Earthquake is a natural disaster. What happens is, as we read in Romans chapter 8, all of creation groans be restored back to its original state.

Let me try to tell you like this. If you were handicapped, where say you were crippled, maybe one of your foot or your leg and you get to hop around. Your desire would be, I have to be whole, like to walk the way I’m supposed to, the way I was designed to. If the earth is fractured with all these continental plates, its desire is to be whole, okay. So what happens here, it’s not just the earthquakes that only show a sign, is that they now they’ll become more frequent and bigger in intensity, okay? There has always been earthquake, but we are going to see it more frequently and more intense.

Well, let’s take a look now, like we’ve seen the last several years. Just recently, they said we’ve had the fifth largest earthquake known to man since we’ve been recording earthquakes happen 2 weeks ago or last 9.0? I mean, when I was a kid I never understood the word “tsunami” until 2006, the one that shoot in Indonesia. That tsunami took the world and tilts off its axis a little bit. It actually made the earth wobble the entire planet. It killed hundreds of thousands of people, changed the landscape, and really tear the world. Some islands were now…and some land mass were just gone underwater.

I heard the earthquake that hit Japan moved the nation of Japan 8 feet closer to the US. That’s powerful, and we just had an earthquake in Haiti a couple of years ago that killed hundreds of thousands of people. We have one in Chile. We have one just in Australia in Christ’s Church, yeah in Myanmar. The earthquakes are becoming more frequent and greater. You see, it’s so frequent now that we’re hearing about major earthquakes and they will get more and more kind of wide because it’s the sign.

Let’s continue on here it says, verse 7, “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.” Now, let me talk about this, nation can be within a country. A nation is grouping of people and then there are governments, and what’s happening you have all these inner turmoil. Like for example, let’s talk about what’s current in the news today is Libya, right? Well they say a lot of the bad that’s going on in Libya, of course it’s against the government, but now they’re taking sides by what tribe they were born into. That tribe we consider like a nation — nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom. Then you get from the outside, let’s say, Western powers fighting now in Libya. So that nation within nation fighting and then kingdom against kingdom or governments against governments, and we’re seeing more of that. Now it’s really spilling out all across the Middle East, and let me say something it’s not just going to only be there. You are going to see so much frustration going on around the world because everything is groaning because of what? It’s pointing to the Messiah.

Now people who were not believers, they all think that you’re kind of crazy. They all think that these are fairly tales. They all think that these are some of that man made-up. Well, they can believe what they want to believe. My faith and my trust for my salvation is in the Lord Jesus Christ, okay. So you can have your opinion, like I have my opinion. I don’t have to disrespect your opinion and hopefully you won’t disrespect mine, but I put my faith in Jesus, okay. I put my faith in Jesus. Jesus said He gave us insight of what will be the signs. So now I’m spiritually looking at what’s going on, so you know what? More and more is getting closer to Jesus. And they will say, why wasn’t it this way during World War World II? There is a lot of war going on, there was famine going on. Well I tell you this, when World War II happened there was no Israel. There was no nation of Israel.

See, there’s some things that take place that haven’t take place in order for Jesus to come back, and Israel had to be a nation. Now the outcome of all the destruction of World War II, what did that produce? The nation of Israel. See, let me say this to you. All these things that are going on, the battles, the wars are all leading to Jesus coming back. Now the way it’s happening, the way it’s going about, we may not understand at the beginning, but God is going to fulfill His Word. He is going to honor His Word and make His word one day would be manifested. So God as it were, His invisible hand is orchestrating all these events to prove out what He said.

So see Hitler was heinous for what he did. He’d almost fit to be almost antichrist, but there was no Israel. What he did and the access and as a result the allies it brought forth this nation, because this nation didn’t exist. It was called Israel, and as a result now the Jewish would have a nation, before they were just scattered all over the world. But one day when they get their nation formed, the next day there was war. Three days after there was war in the Middle East, and that has now, has been the contention in the world today. Is Middle East is always on TV every day now. Something is going on about the Middle East all because of what? Israel, because of Israel. What was Jesus, an Israeli, a Jew? Okay.

So all the world’s affairs are being– maybe it doesn’t want to be but it is being pulled slowly toward this direction, even as it were like a cow or a bull with a ring in his nose and then rubbed tight to a dragging, pulling in this direction, it’s got to go, okay?

Let’s continue on here verse 8, He says, “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” So that nations rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, pestilence. I think what we’re doing now with nuclear reactors in your air, your food and earthquakes, in diverse places. So this can happen everywhere, and don’t we see it happening everywhere and it’s more frequent. You turn around once and here’s another one. And it’s only going to get more intense. Now, He said, this is just the beginning. This doesn’t mean you right away waste it, this is just the beginning.

Verse 8: “All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” So what happens, after we see all these other stuff going on, now what should be happening? Next is going to be the persecution of believers. See, we haven’t seen that yet, but don’t be surprised now. They really will start attacking the church and people who believe in Jesus, we haven’t seen that yet. He told the earthquake and all that, that’s just the beginning, but He said what’s coming after that is that the persecution, people will hate you for Jesus’ sake.

Now right now, the whole world has an idea, “live and let live” Every man can follow his own religion, his own faith, but at some point, I don’t know how or when that’s going to change. Now, coming to church could be dangerous. I mean, in some countries literally it is, okay? But then, it’s going to happen in America. Somehow that persecution of being a believer is going to turn it on people even in this country.

Now I just read an article last week. It was talking about how Christianity would die out in some countries, in this about seven countries, mostly in Eastern Europe and Europe and they were saying that now, like people would say they’re not affiliated with any church. They don’t go to church, and there’s in the population of those people in some country are going down and down and down to almost zero. I remember when I was in Italy, they have the Vatican there, but you go… people are from the Vatican, I remember I was in a place close to the Vatican, it would be empty.

So, what’s happening, we’re already seeing where there are people now are not even going to church anymore. If you’re not going to church, a lot of people who don’t go to church, what’s the point in church? It doesn’t matter. It’s not valued. When something is not valued, it can be discarded. When you have something that has no value, what do you do? You throw it away. If a lot of people start losing their faith, they don’t have faith in Christ and don’t value church, don’t think it’s important, then they all lose it and it won’t have any value and then those who really don’t like it will have an easy way to get rid of it. I mean, think of all the issue that we have going on today in America. There’s situations, there’s issues now where there’s people who say “Well, the church should do and practice the same laws as the secular world” If the government will allow who to get marry. People—men and men; and women and women, they should do in the church. Hey, it will get to a point where they say if you won’t do it in the church, close the churches down. It can get to that point, okay?

So we’re seeing that all these signs that are happening and they are forming. They actually point to Christ coming back, praise the Lord on that. But there are challenges and issues and sorrows that are coming along the way and we need to spiritually attuned, amen? I don’t know how much more it’s going to go on. There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of steps that are already in place.

Here the Bible talks about how the time of the antichrist is one who will think he’d be god will have people mark their head and their hand with this number, what do you call this like a RFID, I think it’s called remote function identification, I think it’s called, that you can go ahead—radio frequency identification—where you can go ahead implant in your dog or your pet, a little chip and you can find wherever they are. You put in your car like for load checking car, one of those kind of devices where you can find your car wherever it is in the world or it seems like, we have a satellite now, right? Something like radio navigation systems, they can put stuff in you and know where you are. Everything about you.

So we’re living in a time now where the Bible is talking about a thousand of years ago, we see now that the infrastructures just about in place to do it. The technology exist today—signs of the times. You need to be now closer to Jesus than ever before. This tells us that the way things are going, we don’t know when, but it’s closer and closer now that we live to the time that we’ll see the Messiah. Now, the things that we read about today these are the beginning, but the beginning signs of coming of the Lord, clear okay? And I don’t how much further it has to go, maybe a lot more time. But one thing I do know, what direction it’s going, okay? I know the victory that it’s going and it seems like it’s getting faster.

Praise the Lord!