Turn with me to Matthew 24:26. We are just going to look at one verse today. It is an unusual verse. I have not really heard Bible teaching on this verse, or if I did hear it, I have forgotten it. It is a somewhat unusual verse.
We are at the time of the coming of the Lord. We are in a period in the world, spiritually, called the Great Tribulation. In the past, I have begun to give the context of that Great Tribulation and to give “the signs of the times” that Christ has provided.
In two different Scripture passages, He was severely critical of those who could not perceive the signs of the times of His day. Certainly of the whole church of His day—the Jews of His day—very, very few were able to recognize the signs of His day.
I want to try to give you those signs of the times again. I try to update them from time-to-time. By the way, signs of the times in the Scripture would not be things that you have seen in the world in the last 2,000 years. Christ established His church when He went to the Cross in AD 33 and the church rolled on from AD 33 for 1955 years until a very important year—1988—and that year was the 13,000th anniversary of creation.
The signs of the times that we are now to see are something different than you might have been able to see in the world. This is an important point: it is something new, something remarkable, something different than you might have been used to—had you been alive all 1955 years.
You can see these signs in a number of the books of the Bible, especially in the New Testament: in Matthew 24 that we are going to look at this morning, in Mark 13, also in Matthew 25, in Luke chapters 12, 17, 21, in 1st and 2nd Peter, in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, in the book of Revelation, and in several other places—but especially in these places.
Before my way here this morning, there was someone here who had heard my list and they said that I had forgotten that the cry will go out, “Peace and safety.” So you will have to add this one. But previously here, I had publicly said that there were dozens and dozens of these signs. Sometimes I speak carelessly, and may the Lord forgive me if I am speaking concerning the Bible, but I want to tell you, from the Scripture, there are dozens and dozens of signs of His coming.
Those are 48 signs. I know that some of you have spoken to me about them and there are more. I would love to hear from you, if you want to add to this list, but this is the context as to why we are in Matthew 24 this morning. Look at Matthew 24:26. It says:
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
The context, as I just said, is the Great Tribulation, a time that we have been in since 1988. You might immediately say, “I do not see this in the Bible.” It is in the Bible, but you have to do a lot of homework.
The Bible in literally hundreds of places constructs a calendar of the world, from 11,013 B.C., the day of creation, until now, 13,000 years later. We are at 13,019 years later right now.
In Matthew 24:23, we see the further context:
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is the Christ…
By the way, the definite article is there in Matthew 24:23. It was left out by the King James translators. Matthew 24:23:
Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo…
Or “look.”
…here is the Christ…
This is what the Greek says.
…or there; believe it not.
By the way, those words, “here” and “there,” are just ordinary Greek words and they are all throughout the New Testament, “here” or “there.”
There will be a huge number of signs, like I just said. I just listed 48 of them. It is interesting, about 14 or 15 years ago, I met a man in Philadelphia who had been a pastor. He was a graduate of St. Joseph’s University. He died in the year 1994, but I used to talk to him every day on the phone. In the year 1986, he constructed a calendar of the world and the end of time. He was apparently, and I am a witness to this fact, well aware, back in the mid-1980’s, that the world was about to come to an end. We wondered about the end of the world. If there were all of these signs, how was Christ going to come “as a thief in the night?”
I do not know if any of you took notice while I was reading those 48 signs of the times, but they are basically spiritual signs which will only be known to the elect. The world will not know these signs or recognize them. They might recognize the “days of Lot” and a little bit more. I am speaking to you from Philadelphia, the new “Murder Capital of the World” where more than one murder a day has taken place this year and just about all of last year also. They may notice that the “days of Noah” are here in some ways. If they turn on their television, they will, or if they roam around the internet for a few minutes, they will find out just how corrupt the world has become.
But these signs are spiritual and they will be hidden to the whole world. In fact, a lot of people in the world, hearing these 48 signs, will give you a blank stare and have a very puzzled look and maybe start to ask you some leading questions—may God bless this teaching that they would begin to ask leading questions.
Christ comes “as a thief in the night” to the whole world except the believers. The “children of the day” will be aware of the timing of His coming. People at the time of the end will say, “The Christ, the Messiah, ‘Mashiyach,’ the Saviour of the world, He is here or He is there.” Metaphorically or parabolically, they are saying, “Look, we know all about the Lord Jesus Christ. We accepted Him as our personal Lord and Saviour. We are perfectly aware of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know the salvation plan of the Bible. We know all about sin and our need for a Saviour. May I introduce you to Jesus Christ?” They will assuredly speak to you that they have the true Gospel and they will say, “Follow us,” in effect, whatever their gospel is that they are giving out.
There are two problems that God has allowed to come into the world—well, many more than two—but two unique ones. One is in the charismatic movement, which includes the idea that God works through us and God speaks through us. We are going to talk a lot more about this.
I was watching a TV program, maybe 12 years ago, of a man who was on a religious channel. He introduced himself as the President of the World Pentecostal Congress. I may have mentioned this before, but it was a stunning day for me. He looked at the TV camera and said, “I represent one billion professing Christians.” After I got up off the floor, I began to think about this. He represented one billion professing Christians, the World Pentecostal Congress?
Well, he was shortchanging himself because recent studies and almanacs, I just heard one on the radio this week, suggest that there are closer to two billion professing Christians in the world. I believe that it can be demonstrated that almost every one of those professing Christians is either part of the charismatic movement or appreciates the charismatic movement—one or the other.
I was at a conference that many of you were at about 13 years ago in Delaware and a nationally prominent prestigious speaker, a seminary professor, speaking of the charismatics addressed them as, “Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ.” He is the head and has been an official and a governor of one of the largest Reformed denominations in the world. In fact, they claim to be the fastest growing Biblical church in the world right now. Well, God is at this time sending this charismatic movement.
There is a second thing that has happened—a new thing. Remember that the signs of the times have to be new and unique since 1988. They are not things that have rolled on for 1955 years until then. But at the time of the end, right now, God has sent a “strong delusion.”
Forgive me if I am repeating myself but it does not hurt to repeat this, speaking of a “strong delusion,” who had a “strong delusion?” The men of Sodom. They wanted to “find the door” to Lot’s house. Who is “the Door?” Jesus—the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the problem today, the real spiritual problem? Men can not find that Door any longer. They do not know the Doorway, they are struck with blindness, which 2 Thessalonians calls a “strong delusion.” At the end of time as part of the “strong delusion,” Christ is judging the churches, as I just said in one of the signs: judgment has begun at the house of God.
Well, the context of Matthew 24:26 that we are trying to consider today, “He is in the desert. He is in the secret chambers”—plural, chambers— is in Matthew 24:24:
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders…
I am testifying to you that if you examine all of the churches in the world today, you will find that the churches are almost universally, virtually 100%, involved in some way in a “signs and wonders” gospel. I will go into a little more detail.
I want to skip over my points and say that I worked with a missionary in India, I did not go to India, but I worked with this Indian missionary as part of a Mission Board for years. He has been a missionary all of his adult life and has traveled to almost every major city in India, many times, giving out tracts from Family Radio and others. If you go to any Protestant denomination in India or any Catholic Church, they are openly involved. In fact, a tract team nine years ago went into India and they put our people out in the streets in a couple of the major cities in India. Some native Indians in Mumbai or Bombay came forward and said, “Oh, we love your tract. Can we help you distribute them?”
Suddenly, the Family Radio tract team there was doubled in size. It was swelled, and they could not print the tracts fast enough. This missionary that I just referred to came up to the Family Radio team and said, “Are you part of this group, these Indian natives that are handing out the tracts?” And the members of the tract team replied, “No, we are not part of their group, but they loved this tract and loved this Gospel and wanted to help us.” He happened to say to an official of the Family Radio team, “Are you aware that they are all tongues speakers?”
You can go into almost any Protestant church in India or in Africa or in the Philippines or in South Korea, you can go in any one of the churches and you will find open involvement in the so-called “gifts,” the charismatic gifts.
In the United States, the picture is a little muddier here because here in all of the churches, they call these people, “Our dear brothers and sisters in Christ.” But overseas, you might find something a little bit more clear.
Well, back to Matthew 24:24:
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders…
Do they have a strange testimony that you can recognize that they might not really be saved? No, these people emphasize strongly that they worship and adore the Lord Jesus Christ and that Jesus is Lord and that the Bible is the Word of God. Unfortunately, most of what they believe they add from outside the Bible, but they have a strong testimony.
I get real uncomfortable when people address me as “Brother Tom.” Remember what I just said about God sending a “strong delusion” into all of the churches? If you can discern who your brother is in this day and age, you are in an advance of me. Remember that the most trusted disciple was Judas; he held the bag. He sat next to the Lord Jesus Christ, leaned up against Him, and he dipped his hand in the dish with Him. They shared the same food dish, and Judas was a devil, according to the Scripture. Yet the disciples admired him and trusted him with their funds and put him in the highest position, almost the highest position, maybe, other than John. Peter, James, and John were three of the most trusted—they are the ones that went into the Garden of Gethsemane.
Well, in about 1948, this charismatic movement, which is being referred to right here in Matthew 24 in our text, came forward. It features, supposedly, supernatural things like tongues or miracles, especially healings. The Roman Catholic churches around America, I remember very strongly that in the 1960’s you could pass a lot of Roman Catholic churches and Protestant churches and they would have out on their lawns a sign saying, “Healing Services Sunday Afternoon or Evening.” You can still see this, but churches which had long since fallen away from the true Gospel were featuring healing services. By healings, they meant that you could pray for healing, in a Biblical sense, as Jesus or the disciples healed people. They were very serious. Some of them professed to have “words of knowledge,” a phrase which is only vaguely in the Bible but where they received special supernatural information that one could not possibly know in any other way, and other supernatural activities.
Years ago when the Lord worked in my life, the first Bible study that I went to was here in Philadelphia in a basement and I met a number of you there, some of you anyway I met there in that basement, a wonderful place where the Lord taught me His Word. The Bible teacher there pointed out that in Matthew 24:4-5, the very first sign in the New Testament that is offered at the end of time is that of deceivers. Satan is the father of lies and is attempting to deceive. Through the charismatic movement, he is attempting to “deceive the very elect.” If Satan is not after you, I wonder where you are, especially right now because we are nearing the very end of time; we are likely within just a few years.
To summarize this context point, we are in the time of the end of the world called the Great Tribulation. We see false prophets and false christs who bring false gospels. They bring this charismatic movement, which is actually universal. Satan is attempting to deceive. He has been loosed and he is attacking the elect and he is sending into his churches, we are going to see more of this, a “strong delusion.”
“Signs” is the word “semeion” in the Greek, Strong’s #4592. In 1 Corinthians 14:22, many of you know that the Scripture there says, “Wherefore tongues are for a sign.” So the “signs and wonders” include this supposed gift of tongues—“tongues are for a sign.” “Wonders” in the Greek is the word “teras,” Strong’s #5059.
Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2, a really critical chapter in the Bible. Those of you who are trying to learn more about the soon coming of the Lord Jesus, you want to spend a lot of time in 2 Thessalonians. Let us just read several verses here. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-9:
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth…
That is an Old English word that means “restrains.”
…only he who now letteth (restrains) will let (restrain), until he be taken out of the way.
That is the Holy Spirit, by the way.
And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: even him, whose coming is after…
Or “against.”
…the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
That is the word “teras.”
So our verse in Matthew 24:24 speaks about the “signs and wonders” gospel and these are the things that Satan brings. He brings “lying wonders.” He can not put an ear back on, as the Lord Jesus did in the garden of Gethsemane. He can not show a healing of a man or a woman with a withered hand. He can not raise the dead—a body that stinks. But he approximates these things with “lying wonders.”
There have been a number of healers in the world since I was born. Some of them have just been amazingly successful and had millions of followers and became multimillionaires before they died, and the world is full of these people still.
It is almost comical to me when I hear of these people or see them. They can not do any of the things that God can do. Satan, of course, is called “the destroyer.” He brings death; he can not bring life to anyone; but he approximates these “wonders” and they are called “lying wonders” in the Scriptures.
To summarize what we just read, summarizing up to 2 Thessalonians 2:12 or so:
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
This is the worst thing that can happen to you. I have said this several times here. What is worse—being tricked by Satan or being deluded by God? If God deceives you, you can not recover. You can be saved from any delusion of Satan—and if you know Christ, he has no power over you. He may trip you up now and again, but he has no ultimate power over you. But if God determines to send a “strong delusion” upon you, this is why the elect do “cry day and night.” What are they crying for? They are crying for mercy. “Do not let me fall into this delusion or this confusion! Oh Lord, open my eyes to these 48 signs!” (Plus a couple more dozen after these, which I will get to later.)
Getting back to our verse, Matthew 24:26:
…Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
Note that the word “chambers” is with an “s.” That word “desert” is twelve more times in the New Testament. It is also translated one time as “solitary,” but it is translated most often as the word “wilderness” in many passages of which you know very well. (I am not going to show them to you.) In Acts, Paul, Peter, and Stephen refer to the Jews wandering “in the wilderness,” and it is this word. It is the same word as the word “desert,” Strong’s #2048.
Most amazingly in Matthew 24:15, God predicts that something will appear that we just referred to a few minutes ago called the “abomination of desolation.” This is the same root word—the abomination of #2048, which is here, “desert.” “Behold, He is in the desert!” It is the “abomination of the desert.” And we need to get in touch with what this “desert” is, if Christ is in this “desert.” They are going to come to you and say, “He is in the desert.” But most often, the King James translators translated this word as “wilderness”—dozens of times as “wilderness”—and it would not hurt to stick with that as the definition.
What is the “wilderness” in the Bible? The Jews wandered forty years in the wilderness and murmured against God. The “wilderness” in the Scripture is a picture of life on this earth—the kingdom of this world. In truth, whose kingdom is the kingdom of this world? It is Satan’s. He came to Adam and Eve in the Garden. God came to them. Satan came to them. That is four people in the Garden, by the way: God, Satan, Adam and Eve. God came to them with the test of all time and said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan came to them, the father of lies, and said, “Ye shall not surely die.”
Who was right? Did Adam and Eve die when they ate that fruit? They lived another thousand years and had at least five children! Who was right—Satan or God? They did die! As Mr. McOwen said over and over again in this morning’s previous lesson, they died spiritually, which is all that counts. “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” We need to be very aware of judging other people, especially judging a book by its cover. But God said, “for in the day that thou eatest thereof,” and they did die, and they plunged you and me and the animal kingdom and the vegetable kingdom into “thorns also and thistles,” and you and me into what is called a daily “warfare” in which Satan is shooting “arrows” at us. If you do not experience this, you need to plunge back in the Bible and ask the Lord for mercy. They plunged you into a daily wrestling match with Satan, who appears as an “angel of light.” Remember, Jacob wrestled.
So according to Matthew 24:26, they are going to come and say, “He is in the desert,” which is the wilderness—the whole kingdom of this world. Remember when the seventh trumpet sounds, what happens? We read in Revelation 11:15:
And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Do you like this verse? Do you long for this? Oh, praise the Lord for this verse! Do you long to hear that trumpet sound in which the kingdoms of this world will be burned with a “fervent heat” and Satan will be cast in? You will not have any more wrestling matches with Satan if you know Christ and you are truly saved on that Day.
They will also say that Christ is already here. In what sense? Has anyone ever come to you and said, “Christ is here?” I have—because of the neighborhood that I lived in, I lived near a cultic group called the Swedenborgians. Their world headquarters are in suburban Philadelphia and in Sweden. They believe that Christ came back at the turn of the previous century—around 1900. The Mormons also teach this. The Jehovah’s Witnesses actually teach it, directly and indirectly, as do the Seventh Day Adventist. I do not know if you have run into these. There are also other versions of them—like the Moonies and the Branch Davidians—in which the leader says that he is the Messiah. The leader says directly, “I am the Lord Jesus Christ.” I have been reading on the internet about some supposed prophet in Florida who is now a multi-zillionaire who has hundreds and hundreds of followers who openly say that he is the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyway, these things will occur, and they will say that Christ has already come.
There is another large group of professing Christians who say that Christ is to come, not literally on Judgment Day, but that the “spirit of Christ” is to come. This will be the spirit of love and forgiveness and brotherhood. They say that this will be the “spirit of Christ” that is to come. There is a huge class of professing Christians in the world who would not profess to believe in a literal Judgment Day—a Day in which the earth will be burned with a “fervent heat,” where every man or woman who has ever been conceived in the womb will stand for Judgment, except those excused who are in the Lord Jesus Christ who already stood for Judgment and who already went to Hell for an eternity when He went into the garden of Gethsemane for those “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
They are also going to say, “He is in the secret chambers.” This is a complicated word. “Secret chambers” is the Greek word “tameion,” Strong’s #5009. I could only find it four times in the New Testament. How is Christ in the “secret chambers?” Well, in Luke 12:3, this word is used. It says there:
…that which ye have spoken in the ear (or whispered in the ear) in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
It is the word “closets.” It is used as the word “closets” in other places that you all know by heart. For example, Matthew 6:6:
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet…
So the “secret chambers” is the same identical word as “closet.” Turn to Luke 12:24 and we will see the last place that I could find this word. I will give you a little quiz here. Where is the word in this verse? Luke 12:24:
Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?
Which word in this verse is our text word? “He is in the secret chambers.” Which word is that? It is “storehouse,” which by the way here is paralleled with “barn,” a more common word in the Bible. So far, the King James scholars chose three English words: closets, storehouses, and secret chambers.
We can deduce that what this word is referring to with God defining it in these four verses is that it is an enclosed place—a storehouse—or even a private place. But it is an enclosed place—a storehouse. Ravens do not need any storehouses, but we do. We need corn and flour and other things that are stored so that we can eat.
Let us go from what we know so far and let us try to say this verse back with a more literal Greek understanding. We are at Matthew 24:26, our text.
By the way, I had an old professor, and someone sitting here in this auditorium had the same professor, I think, or maybe he was dead—he was an older man. He used to say that whenever in the Bible you see the word “therefore” or “wherefore,” ask yourself what it is there for. This verse starts out “wherefore,” so what is it there for?
This verse is powerfully pointing back to the “signs and wonders” gospel of Matthew 24:24. Do not miss this clue. If you want to understand Matthew 24:26, the Lord is using this word “wherefore” after saying, “I have told you before.” Therefore or “wherefore,” pay attention to Matthew 24:24 while you are looking at Matthew 24:26, if they say to you, “Look, Jesus is already here on earth. He is in the kingdom of this world, which is Satan’s kingdom; He is in the wilderness.” Then, do not go forth! Do not go out there!
This is a severe warning for the end of time for someone who wants to tell you that Christ has already come. Let me assure you from the Word of God, on the Day that Christ comes, if you can hear my voice this morning, you will know the Day He comes. You will not miss it. You will not sleep through it. You could be blind; you could be deaf—you will know it! “Every eye shall see Him.” This whole earth is going to shake as it has never shaken before.
There is no mistake to be made about it. Christ is not on earth yet. He has come in a certain sense. He came in 1988 in fierce judgment upon His churches—judgment like in the “days of Lot” that we just referred to, a time of a great outpouring of immorality in the world as in the “days of Noah” and the “days of Lot.” But if someone wants to come to you and say, “I have found Him; this is where He is; He came to me and He spoke to me,” do not follow them.
Then Matthew 24:26 adds, “Look! Look here! Christ is in these enclosed places.” Metaphorically, we need to ask what they are saying.
The word “lo,” by the way, is the word “look.” That word “lo” is in many, many places in the Bible. When it says “lo,” it is the word “Look—pay attention!” In fact, in part of these Scriptures that we are going to look at as we close, Christ is saying, “Take heed!” “Pay attention right here!” “Look!” “Open your eyes!” “Pay attention—put on your glasses!” I can not read without these glasses. “Put your glasses on and take a look!”
What enclosed places is Christ in? What are they saying? What enclosed places? What storehouses? What closets? What barns? Where do voices in the world that want to name the Name of Christ, where do they say that He is located?
Well, first of all, we know from the context, and I believe that we are here to give you the context, they are saying, “He is in the charismatic gospel!” “We have power with God!” “We can do signs and wonders!” As a matter of fact, there was a famous TV program—I do not know if it is still on; it used to be on—called “Signs and Wonders.” A famous preacher from Florida called his program, “Signs and Wonders,” not knowing that he was condemning himself as a servant of Satan by the title that he chose. But they say, “Look! We have power with God. We can do healings. We can speak in tongues. We can do miracles! Come here. It is secret. It is enclosed, but come inside our enclosure. Follow us.”
By the way, there are almost one hundred verses about the end of the world in Matthew 24 and Matthew 25. But the Scripture is shouting out here, and this is the Lord Jesus speaking, “Go not forth”—do not follow them! Then He says, “Believe it not”—do not believe it. He says to not follow them and then He says to not believe it.
It is interesting, recently I heard a speaker on Family Radio say that one-third of the population of the earth are some sort of professing Christians. He had begun by teaching about the one-third/two-thirds. It is interesting that when we come to this time, about one-third of the population of the earth are professing Christians, and nearly another one-third or maybe one-fifth are professing Muslims.
Well, not only does the charismatic movement have “signs and wonders,” but they also have voices and visions. “Come to this enclosed secret place. Come into my secret chamber. God is speaking to me. God speaks to me! He speaks through me. I have private information from God. I have revelations and ‘words of knowledge.’” Say these types of things and you can get a huge following.
What is the biggest secret place in the world? This is what I call the “trick gospel.” Any of you know what the “trick gospel” is? This is the most popular gospel in the world. It says this, “I want you to call upon the Lord. Those who call upon the Lord, He has promised to save. And, by the way, you have to call upon the Lord in Jesus’ Name.”
“So there are two conditions to you being saved, and He will save you if you call upon His Name. Oh, but, I think that you also have to repent of your sins—so I meant three things. You have to repent of your sin. Call upon Him in Jesus’ Name and repent of your sin. Then, I may have forgotten a fourth thing that you have to do and that is to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. The fifth thing is to believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead. Do you have those five things?”
It is a formula. It is the formulary gospel and it is throughout the whole world. You may think that I have lost it, but veritably every one in the world professing to be a Christian, professes this formulary gospel. It is doing a trick: you can be saved—just do this! “By the way, you really ought to get baptized, when you finish those five things. So I think that I mean, do six things, but do not get lost. The formula is kind of extensive, but do this.”
Do these people profess to love the Bible? Yes. Do they profess the Name of the Lord Jesus? Yes. Are they easy to spot? No. Someone taught me 15 years ago that if you think that it is easy to spot falsehood when you are up against Satan who is the great deceiver, it is not. Remember that the first sign is that Satan’s deceivers will arise. This is not easy, but you have the whole “armor of God” to defend you.
Where else is Christ in an enclosure? They say that Christ is in the “secret chambers.” By the way, what they are saying is, “He is in my enclosure.” Well, the largest church in the world is the Catholic Church. I do not want to pick on them; they are no worse or no better whatsoever than any other church. They were actually founded in AD 464 by a man named Leo the First who declared himself to be the pope. Before him, he then listed a bunch of men who had come before him as pastors in Rome, and he stated that they had been the previous popes. He went on back to Peter, who never apparently was in Rome. But somehow, the Roman Catholic Church has therefore only appeared for 1500 years on earth; they have not been here for 2000 years.
I learned all of this, by the way, in the World Almanac, and you can look up Leo the 1st and how the Roman Catholic Church was organized. But they have the Bible, and for more than 1,000 years, they used a Bible called the Vulgate Bible. It was St. Jerome, I think, who was the translator back in AD 500. They will tell you that they appreciate the Bible. Unfortunately, they have the Vulgate, they have the Apocrypha books, they have the writings of Joan of Arc, they have the sayings of Lourdes and Fatima, and they have the sayings of the pope speaking ex cathedra. They have a whole lot besides the Bible; actually, added up, it is a whole lot more than the Bible. So if you are struggling to understand the Bible in the Catholic Church, you are going to have to spend a lot of time in these other books and these other things.
I do not want to pick on just the Catholic Church, because when you examine the churches in the world, they have other authority besides just the Bible. Nor do I want to just pick on the charismatics.
The Scripture says, “No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.” Recently, I was reading in 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2 is the landmark chapter for how to understand the Bible. Do not ever forget that. In all the Bible, you can not do better than to read 1 Corinthians 2. It is all about the Bible. By the way, 1 Corinthians 2 is the chapter that teaches us that we have to compare Scripture with Scripture—“comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
Turn to 1 Corinthians 2:9. Do you know what verse 9 is? Do you know something? I think that every one of you that I am looking at knows this verse by heart. Do you know what it says? It says:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
All of my life, 64 years, I have known that verse. My momma taught it to me from the time that I could talk. I love this verse, and I am sure that you do, too. I thought this verse was about Heaven. “The things which God hath prepared for them”—do you know what this verse is about? The Scripture! Look at 1 Corinthians 2! The Lord has blessed me tremendously—I just started it. It is quoting, by the way, Isaiah 64:4. It is the Word of God that He has prepared for those that love Him. Do not ever get away from the Word of God, into any other thinking or any other life experience or any other book. Be warned! Take heed! Behold! Look! Watch! Jesus says this over and over again—talk about redundancy! He is warning over and over, “Stick with the Bible! Stick with the Bible—only the Bible!” Then, when you want to understand the Bible, 2 Peter 1:20 says:
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
You can not have your own idea. Be very wary of a man who says, “I think that the Scripture here means…” Do not ever listen to such a man, and by the way, you may have a great respect for such a man. The same goes if you are a woman in a woman’s Bible study, and the woman says, “I think this Scripture means…” That is a dangerous Bible teacher. You need to listen to a Bible teacher who shows you what the Bible says it means—what the Bible says it means—because the Bible is its own interpreter. 2 Peter 1:20-21:
…no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy…
That is the Scripture.
…came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
We get a little bit of help, in closing, with this verse that we are looking at in Matthew 24:26:
…Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
This verse is given again in Mark 13:21. Let us read Mark 13:21:
And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not:
Then Mark 13:22 goes on to discuss “false Christs and false prophets” with “signs and wonders.”
Notice how Mark 13 has this upside down. In Matthew, it introduces “false Christs, and false prophets.” In Mark, they follow this concept, to make sure that you see that this concept is surrounding those that have a “private” gospel. “Come into my secret place, my enclosed place. I want to show you the Lord Jesus.”
The Lord Jesus is in the Word of God and there alone and do not ever listen to false prophets and false Christs, especially anyone that comes to you with a sign or a wonder. Those “signs and wonders” ended when God ended the Word of God. If you want to learn more about this, be sure to study Hebrews 2 and you will see how those “signs and wonders” came to be. Notice in Mark 13:23, Jesus says, “take ye heed.”
The Lord Jesus here—whom almost all of you name as your Saviour—He is pleading with you, pleading with you, “Watch it! Behold! Look out! Take heed! Be warned! Do not listen to these people!” I know that some of you may be thinking, “I know this already. You do not need to warn me.” We need to be warned, lest we fall under a “strong delusion.”
There is another parallel in Luke 17:23. It says:
And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them…
This is a warning to stay clear of those who practice “signs and wonders”—the charismatic gospel or the trick formulary gospel. Do you know that gospel? That is the most popular gospel in the whole world. Do you know the tricks for how to come to Jesus?
In our previous lesson this morning, we read in John 3 where the Lord Jesus was asked by Nicodemus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” Jesus does not tell him. If you think that you know how to find Jesus, you had better spend some time in the first 8 or 9 verses in John 3. God is not going to tell how He saves people. It is a great mystery.
In summary, there are dozens and dozens of signs of the end. We are in the time of the Great Tribulation. We are in the time of false gospels and false salvation plans, false messiahs and false teachers. The charismatic movement has invaded, really, and I do not want to exaggerate, but virtually 100% of the churches. They either practice “signs and wonders” or they love those that do practice these things.
God warns over and over again to beware of these people. Satan has been loosed to deceive the world. “His deadly wound was healed.” Not only that, but at this time, in 2 Thessalonians 2, speaking of the church, God is sending His own church a “strong delusion” such that they fall away from the faith—faith that they never had in the first place. The “man of sin” is revealed—he sits and rules in the “temple.” Satan uses power—“dunamis,” signs—“semeion,” and lying wonders.
Look! Take heed! Many will come to you and say that they know the Gospel—that they know Christ—and many are deceivers, especially in this time. Do not follow them. Do not believe them. May God grant you this grace.