Welcome, friend, to our Bible Study In Search of the Lord’s Way. I’m Mack Lyon. Only God knows what the future holds. While opinion polls tell us what people think about the future, only God’s Word reveals what He’ll do on Judgment Day. Phil Sanders has prepared a message which he titled simply “The Future.” Stay tuned for it.
Thank you, Mack. Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and we’re here to search the Scriptures for the Lord’s Way. Thanks for spending this time with us. We love to hear that you are watching or listening; and we care about you, we care about your life, your future, and your soul. And that’s why in this 31st year of production, we still preach God’s Word to find God’s will for our lives. God’s Word gives us hope and teaches us what we need to know to have eternal life. We’re in the life business.
I was delighted last week to hear Mack speak about the Search program. I’m so grateful to be a part of Search and I pray that God will use this program for many, many years to spread the gospel to the whole world. I’m so thankful for all the churches and the Christians that have prayed and supported this program; and through God’s grace and help and the generosity of thousands, we have had the privilege of coming into your home each week.
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Well, Ken Helterbrand is going to lead the Edmond church in song, and then we’ll read from 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5.
Our reading today from God’s Word comes from 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 5. “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, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” Well, that’s God’s Holy Word speaking to us. Let’s pray together. O Father, help us as we look at our world and culture today with all of its difficulties. Father, help us to keep our faith and to do what is right and to love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
The Bible says, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” Well, my friend, those “difficult times” are here! Truth and morality have been replaced; they have been turned upside down in the hearts of many people; and they’ve been replaced with evil. People actually show contempt these days for what’s good, and some have made their brand of Christianity into a religion of entertainment and enterprise. America has thousands of religious bookstores but they know little about God or the Bible. American society has dismissed God and His Word, the Bible.
And today we’re going to explore what the future holds for us as God’s people. As our culture slowly turns its back on God, we face great challenges ahead. And we’ve got to appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life. By our lives and by our message we’ve got to live as God’s people. Romans 12 and verse 2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
I worry greatly about the moral compass of our country. Over 70 percent of Americans believe that the moral values of this country are getting worse. The break-down of the family, the loss of reverence for God, the nearly universal practice of the foul mouth, and a blind eye toward sexual immorality has caused many people to disregard sin altogether. People no longer know how to blush or when to be ashamed of their ungodliness. They boast of their sinful lives.
Many preachers these days never speak about sin, and many young people grow up untaught on the subjects of right and wrong. These young adults mess up their lives morally, because they don’t know any better. They don’t know any better, because their parents and their preachers fail to teach them God’s will. Perhaps one reason many people have stopped going to church is because many churches have so compromised their faith and morals that they don’t offer any spiritual help to people.
According to a recent Pew Research Poll, a majority of Americans believe in the next forty years that we’ll have another world war and have another terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon. They say that in the next forty years cancer will be cured, that astronauts will land on Mars, and the earth will get warmer. Many think that we’ll find evidence of life elsewhere in the universe and human beings will be cloned in the next couple of decades. They believe that in the next forty years there won’t be any newspapers, that we won’t use paper money, or that personal letters will no longer come in the mail. In forty years we’ll probably not be riding in gas-powered cars, but they think we’ll get our energy from alternative sources. They believe that we’ll have a serious fresh water shortage in most of the U.S. They believe most Americans will have to work into their 70s before they can retire.
Being a Christian or associating with the Christian faith is not as attractive to Americans as it used to be. We ask why? Well, I think first because the media has pictured the Christian faith, devout Christians and churches as something ugly or fanatical or unreasonable. Second, many people find it harder and harder to locate someone that they think is a genuine Christian. Now, people love Jesus Christ but they find it hard to embrace Christianity or the church. They see a real disconnect between American Christianity and the Jesus Christ of the Bible.
Unfortunately, what many Americans think Jesus Christ is like is very different from what the Holy Scriptures describe Him to be. For instance, sixty percent of Americans believe that Jesus Christ committed sins while He was on earth. But the Bible clearly says that Jesus, even though He was tempted in all points like we, remained without sin in the book of Hebrews chapter 4, verses 15 and 16. Again, 1 Peter 2 and verse 22 says that Jesus “committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.”
You see, what many people think about Christ and the Christ of the Bible are two different things. And what many people think about Christianity and how Christianity should be and then what Bible commands, that God commands through the Bible rather, how it should be are also two different things. Some folks stress what they like about Christianity and the church, and then they just kind of set aside what they don’t like. And they’re not following God; they’re following really what they manufacture in their own faith. On this program what we’re determined to study is the Scriptures to see what Jesus is really like and to be what the Lord wants us to be and commands us to be. We want to be God’s people, the church. The real measure of truth about Christ and the church comes from Scripture not popular perceptions or opinion polls.
For instance, we might ask, “Is God involved in the world today?” Well, 29 percent of Americans believe that God controls the events on Earth, but 44 percent say that God just watches; He observes but He doesn’t control what happens. Many people assume that if people disagree on their views about God, that we really can’t understand anything about God. This is what happens when people turn their own reasoning into the truth rather than going to the Bible to find the truth about God. They become confused.
The Lord God said in Jeremiah 18, verses 7 to 10, “If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck it up and break down and destroy it, and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it. And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do it.” God is indeed involved in our world today! He builds up those who are righteous and He punishes those who are wicked.
When people assume that God isn’t involved, they begin to feel free to do as they please morally and spiritually. Nearly nine out of ten adults (that is 88%) say that their religious faith is very important in their life. But 71% say that they are going to develop their own set of religious beliefs rather than accept what God reveals in the Bible. Only about a third of Americans believe in absolute moral truth. And in practice, they become their own god and have dismissed the God of heaven for their own thinking.
Perhaps this is why many of our morally-confused young adults are willing to behave in ways that older generations consider sinful. The younger adults are, that is the younger they are, the more likely they are in the last week to use profanity in public, to engage in sex outside of marriage, to tell lies, to get drunk, to gossip, to engage in acts of retaliation, or to look at pornography. When older adults abandon God and the truth of the Bible, they can be certain (and listen to me now) that their children will suffer for it.
The Lord God in Hosea chapter 4 warned ancient Israel when they stopped following Him. And He built a case against them because they lacked faithfulness, kindness, and knowledge of God. They were involved in swearing, and deception, and murder, and stealing, and adultery. They had become violent and bloodshed followed bloodshed, but they didn’t want anyone telling them that they were wrong. In fact, in the passage it says no one was to find fault, and no one was to accuse them. That was their attitude. They would even argue with the Jewish priest about what is sin because they didn’t want to listen to him. Doesn’t that sound like today?
Listen to what God says in Hosea 4 and verse 6. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, (that is knowledge of God) I will reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” I don’t want God to forget my children on account of my failure to teach them what the Bible says about righteousness and morality. I want my children to live righteously and godly lives. I want them to belong to God for an eternity; and I must teach them the Lord’s way and set a Christian example for them.
It shouldn’t surprise us that the world, if left alone, will become more and more, well, worldly! Our country needs just what it has always needed, and that’s faith in Jesus Christ, hope for a better world, and love for God and our fellow man. We still need the light of the world and the salt of the earth in Christians who live their faith and believe the Word of God. Living our faith according to the teaching of the Scripture is what made this country great.
There’s more to the traditional family, the Biblical family, than a marriage license. The home as God would have it is still the most blessed place on earth, filled with love and hope. Statistics show that children who grow up in godly, Christian homes with both parents have the best opportunity to achieve happiness and success in life.
Ah, we need godly, pure men and women who will be faithful and loving spouses and parents, people who are committed to serving God and their families. Many problems in America can be traced to the absence of godly parents who are faithful to their families. We need parents who will put their families before their jobs or their pleasures.
We need Christian fathers who take seriously the role of training their children spiritually (Ephesians 6 and verse 4). We need godly, morally pure women who know how to love their husbands and their children (Titus 2, verses 4 and 5) and women who will not walk away from them when times get tough. We may not reverse the trends of this culture toward godlessness, but we can determine to make a difference in our own lives. You see, a better world begins with me. I can let my light shine for the Lord in my corner of this world.
We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know the God of the future. Life brings us many surprises. Ask any sports enthusiast. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9, verses 11 and 12, “Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. For man does not know his time. Like a fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.” We don’t always get what we expect; life is not always fair.
But whatever happens in the future, I know two unchangeable things. There are some absolute truths. First, the Word of God will not change or disappear. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24 and verse 35 that, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” They were true when Jesus spoke them, 2,000 years ago, and they will be true forever. Second, Jesus Christ will never stop loving people. God offers His grace and mercy to all who will respond to Him in faith, love and obedience.
The Bible asks the question in Romans 8, verses 35 and verse 36 that, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” You know, you might think things when they go wrong that God somehow stop loving us, but that’s not the case.
Verses 37 to 39 say, “No, in all these things (all these problems) we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” We can put our faith and hope in God, no matter what! We can put our souls into His hands with joy and confidence.
But we must not take God and this life for granted. Proverbs 16, verse 1 says that, “The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” We should not boast in our arrogance but realize that our lives and this ministry belong to the Lord. We can only serve “if the Lord wills.” And since we belong to the Lord, we’ve got to be faithful to teach and to preach His Word and to live it out in our lives. Let’s pray. O Father, help us to live according to Your will, knowing that all that we are and all that we have is by Your grace and Your mercy. This is our prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen!
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, verses 13 to 17, “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” We must go again and again to God and His Word for the answers to life’s questions.
We must be also able to be prepared for the future. The Bible promises Jesus will come again to raise the dead, to destroy the world, and to judge every person. The Lord Jesus said in John 12 and verse 48 that, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.” We prepare for that day by obeying the Lord’s teaching.
To become a Christian, believe in the Lord Jesus with all your heart, repent of your sins, confess Jesus as the Christ, and be baptized into Christ. When you are baptized or immersed in water into Christ, then you are baptized into His death (Romans 6 and verse 3). And it’s at that point that you receive the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2 and verse 38); it’s at that point that the old man of sin dies, and you are raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6, verses 4 to 7). Ah, baptism is necessary for you to start your new life with Christ.
Sometimes Christians stray from the path, just as the Israelites did in Hosea’s day. If you have, why not come back to the Lord? Return to the Lord with all your heart and leave your sin. Our need today is not moral confusion but the unchangeable God of Truth who loves us.
We hope today’s study of God’s Word has blessed you. If you want a free printed copy, a CD, or tape of this message, “The Future,” mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org.
Call us on our toll-free number if you would like: 1-800-321-8633. Now, all of our programs appear on our website, that’s www.searchtv.org. And you can access them in a printed, audio, or video format. We also offer free study sheets for each program. You can download them or request them; and they will help you study God’s Word with us.
Please worship with one of the churches of Christ in the area that’s served by this station or network. Let them know that you watch In Search of the Lord’s Way. Well, Mack and I will be back next week, Lord willing. Keep searching God’s Word with us. God bless you and we love you from all of us at In Search of the Lord’s Way.
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