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Don’t
let your heart be troubled
The truth is that nowadays we
can’t watch television or listen to the radio without
hearing mention of distant wars and disasters. We are
living in difficult times; we are living in prophetic
times. All we have to do is examine the word of God and
realize the signs are being given. As I said, we can’t
watch television or listen to the radio without hearing
that Iraq biological weapons at their disposal, weapons
that can cause the death of thousands of people with
just one use. We also hear that North Korea, who has
broken all the laws between nations, is now developing
nuclear bombs, weapons that can also cause the death of
thousands with just one use. The world doesn’t realize
that we are on the verge of a third world war. I tell
you this because when we examine the word of God and
compare what it says to world events, you don’t have to
be a genius to realize that the situation is grave. Why
do I tell you this? Let us go to the word and we shall
see if what I am telling you is true.
Matthew 24:3-12
– 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? 4And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man
deceive you. 5For many shall come in my name,
saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. 6And
ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be
not troubled: for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and
there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these
are the beginning of sorrows. 9Then shall
they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you:
and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
10And then shall many be offended, and shall
betray one another, and shall hate one another. 11And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12And because iniquity shall abound, the love
of many shall wax cold.
Before we proceed I want to
make something very clear, the purpose of this preaching
is not to scare or frighten anyone; nor do I claim to
know the day or date that the inevitable will happen,
that is to say when this evil world will end, when our
Lord will return to do justice; this date is only known
to God. This is something that is clearly stated by our
Lord in Mark 13:32
when we read “But of that day and that hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither
the Son, but the Father.” Therefore, the purpose of
this preaching is to call believers to repentance; the
purpose of this preaching is to call believers into His
service. The purpose of this preaching is to awaken
those that have fallen asleep in the pews of their
churches and are so comfortable that they don’t realize
the Lord is at the door. Many think that we have time,
many feel that there will be enough time tomorrow to ask
for forgiveness of God, that tomorrow they can start a
new life, but if this is your way of thinking I am here
to tell you that tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone,
and that tomorrow may never come for you. This is
something clearly stated in
James 4:13-15
when we read “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to
morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a
year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14Whereas
ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a
little time, and then vanisheth away. 15For
that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live,
and do this, or that.” I know that many must be
thinking, all of this is well and good, but how do we
apply this warning that Jesus gave to our life today?
To determine this, let us examine the key points of this
warning a little closer.
First, here we read that the
Lord says: “Take heed that no man deceive you. 5For
many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and
shall deceive many“. I want to stop here a moment
and examine this word “Christ.” This word has come to
be synonymous with the name of Jesus, but this word has
a meaning of its own. This word has its origins in the
Greek word “kristos” which means the “anointed one”.
Why is it so important that we make this distinction?
The reason is simple; we only have to open our eyes and
we can see that across history and in our day as well,
there has existed, and there still exists numerous
persons who claim to be the only ones who know the
truth. If we analyze all the different cults and
religions that exist in this world we can see that they
all claim one thing, and that is that only through their
doctrines and theologies can anyone reach God. I don’t
want to go too deeply into this subject since doing so
would take too much time and our time today is limited,
but I know all to well that everyone here today knows
exactly what I am speaking of. You know that cults and
all types of religions exist that don’t follow the
doctrines of Jesus, and that they will never reach God.
Confirmation of this statement that I have just made is
found in the words of our Lord in
John 14:6
when we read “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but
by me.” Therefore, we can clearly see that the
warning that Jesus gave us in these verses that we are
studying today has come to pass, and is still happening
today, because there are many that say that they posses
the truth, there are many that claim that only through
their religion can you be saved or have eternal life.
But the truth of the matter is that you can’t obtain
salvation and eternal life because you belong to a
particular church or because we are members of a
particular council or denomination, salvation comes only
through the grace of God, and His son Jesus Christ.
This is something very well reflected in
Ephesians 2:8-10
when we read “For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God: 9Not of works, lest any man should
boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them.” As we can
clearly see, there is nothing on this earth or anyone on
this earth that can save you, there is no institution
that can guarantee you eternal life, there is only one
and his name is Jesus. This is again clearly stated for
us in Acts 4:10-12
when we read “Be it known unto you all, and to all
the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the
dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you
whole. 11This is the stone which was set at
nought of you builders, which is become the head of the
corner. 12Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved.” But
unfortunately, this has not stopped all those that
preach a different gospel, that twist scriptures to fit
their needs, and that is why Jesus said, “Take heed
that no man deceive you”.
Second we read “And ye
shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be
not troubled: for all these things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. 7For nation shall
rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and
there shall be famines, and pestilences, and
earthquakes, in divers places. 8All these
are the beginning of sorrows”. Without doubt we
have all heard of wars and rumors of wars. Without
doubt some of us get worried when we see man made
establishments and systems disappear in a twinkling of
an eye. Throughout history we have all been able to see
how nation has risen against nation; we have seen how
thousands of people die daily from hunger, yes you heard
right, hunger; we have seen how many have lost their
life’s in earthquakes; but none of us have seen how
people die of a “plague”. I know we have all studied
history in school, I know that we have all read about
how a long time ago thousands of people perished as a
result of plague and pestilence, but with the
advancement of technology and medical science, these
occurrences or outbreaks have not existed for a long
time. Science and the advances in medicine have
eradicated just about all pestilence in the world, but
unfortunately this same technology and advances in
medicine of today are not always used for the good of
mankind, they are also used for evil. The technology of
today allows us to have much more than people had long
ago or could even have imagined. I am talking about of
things that we take for granted such as electricity.
How is electricity produced in this country? There are
many ways to produce electricity, but the most efficient
and cheapest is through nuclear plants. There is also
nuclear medicine, these treatments can heal, but more
importantly this new type of medicine can diagnose
illnesses where before it was not possible. But has man
concentrated on this only? Has man used this technology
for the good of mankind only? The answer is no! Man has
also used this technology to kill man. This is
something we have seen in our times, we have seen how
man has used nuclear bombs and destroyed entire cities
and all the residents therein. There are many nations
that have this technology, there are many nations that
have never used these types of weapons, but as we know
there are many that posses this technology not to help
the residents of their country but to be ready for war.
Nations where thousands of
inhabitants die daily because of hunger, but yet they
spend hundreds of millions of dollars developing nuclear
weapons. We also have many nations that use this
science, that use the advances in medicine but not to
eradicate those infirmities, but to cause infirmities
that kill. What do you mean Pastor? This is the
irrefutable truth about biological warfare. Man has
created in his laboratories deadly diseases, he has
created viruses that resist all types of antibiotics and
their sole purpose is to kill. I do not pretend to be
an expert in these matters, and God knows that I don’t
have a degree in biology, but I do understand the way
these things work and what they are for. It is not
difficult to infect thousands with a deadly virus; it
only takes one evil person to accomplish this. Like I
said, I am not an expert, but I know that all viruses
have an incubation period. This is the time during
which the person doesn’t exhibit any symptoms, and does
not know they have been infected. Therefore it only
takes one person to become infected with this deadly
virus and then in turn they infect everyone around them
and so on. There are many viruses and they are all
transmitted differently; some are ingested, some you
breath in; a simple sneeze or cough is all it takes from
an infected person. Then what happens? Without knowing
what has just happened to us we continue our daily
routine, we come in contact with our friends, family and
without knowing we have infected them. This is an
endless cycle; the end is death to all who have come in
contact with you and death to all who came in contact
with them. Is biological warfare a defensive weapon?
No! It is not a defensive weapon because it kills not
only your enemy; it causes the death of all without
distinction of who they are. So looking over recent
accounts, we can see without a doubt that Jesus’ warning
is very timely for our day. All these things that are
happening are an indication that His return is not as
far as some may think. What is the opinion of most
people when they hear about the second coming of
Christ. The opinion of most is as we find in
2 Peter 3:4
when we read “And saying, Where is the promise of his
coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”
Most people think that nothing will ever change, and
most people have become complacent, but I tell you today
that the Lord is closer than anyone thinks.
Third, we see that He tells
us “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted,
and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations
for my name's sake. 10And then shall many be
offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate
one another. 11And many false prophets shall
rise, and shall deceive many. 12And because
iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.”
Fortunately, none of us have suffered the tribulation
mentioned here; none of the people that we know have
been put to death for the cause of Jesus, but I will
tell you this doesn’t mean that this has not happened
and is still happening. On a daily basis many die in
foreign lands because they are followers of Jesus.
There are many that are put in jail and are tortured for
simply preaching the gospel. These are things that are
not publicized in newspapers, or are broadcasted on
television, or do we hear of them on the radio, but I
tell you they are happening daily. And because these
things are happening just like it says in the Word, “the
love of many shall wax cold.” This is a great
problem in our churches, when our love for God grows
cold, when we no longer feel the burning of the Holy
Spirit in us, then it becomes easy for us to sin. It
becomes easier for us to worry more about the things of
this world then to worry about our sisters and brothers
and our spiritual life. This is something we have all
seen, but it is also something people allow to happen.
Many believers allow circumstances and their
preoccupation with the things of this world to
extinguish the fire of Holy Spirit within them. Many
believers permit that lying devil to take control of
their life’s; their homes, their families and allow him
to destroy all that God had started. The evil in this
world is being multiplied more and more; and this is
happening because this world does not seek God’s face.
That is why I say to you today, it is time to wake up
from our slumber, and face the truth. The truth is that
the signs are being given, and the prophecies are being
fulfilled. Like I told you in the beginning, this is
not a preaching to scare or torment anyone; it is a
preaching that is calling you to wake up to reality.
To conclude.
The Lord told us, “see
that ye be not troubled”, but what does this mean?
Does this mean we should not be alarmed? Does this mean
we should not be paying attention? The answer is NO.
What Jesus is saying today is that we should be paying
attention but not allow these things that are happening,
these things that we cannot control, to deviate us from
the path that God has for us. We have to concentrate on
the path that is important; we have to concentrate
solely on Him. All of us have to do as we find in
Isaiah 55:6-7
when we read “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found,
call ye upon him while he is near: 7Let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will
have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will
abundantly pardon.” Tell the person next to you,
seek God. If people in this world would stop being so
worried about earthly things, things that don’t last,
and would seek out God more, things would not be as they
are. If God’s people would seek Him more, we would not
be suffering like we suffer sometimes. The time for
God’s return is close, and that is why we cannot allow
our faith to weaken, and we cannot allow our hearts to
be so troubled that we sin against God. How can we
accomplish this? We can achieve this through
repentance, we achieve this by making Him our King and
our personal Savior, and we achieve this by doing His
will. People of God hear His warning today; people of
God listen to His voice today; “Behold, I stand at
the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open
the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
and he with me.” (Revelations
3:20). We cannot let
down our guard, we cannot allow our faith to falter
because of these things that we are seeing happen today,
and we have to persevere at all times. I leave you with
these words from our Lord Jesus as we find in “Matthew
24:13 when we read “But
he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be
saved.”
© Jose R. Hernandez |
Christian
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