Pastor’s Conference 2024:
Promises for Perilous Times
2 Timothy 3:1 “But know this, that in the last days
perilous (terrible, stressful, difficult, dangerous, hard, grievous) times will come: 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
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Now, there is no doubt we are living in perilous times.
The laundry list Paul gives of ungodly character traits characterizing the last days sounds like today’s headlines.
Now, as we all know the days of the early church were also perilous, dangerous, perverse, and stressful!
The historian Tacitus—not a Christian—said that Nero had Christians torn by dogs, nailed to crosses, even used as human torches to light up his gardens at night.
In the days of the Apostles, Christians were painted as:
-subversive,
-antisocial,
-enemies of the family,
-aloof, elitist,
-enemies of the state due to their refusal to worship Rome’s false gods.
To become a Christian was to put a target on your chest!
And yet the early church shook Rome to its core with their bold declaration of Jesus, and came to be known as “These who have turned the world upside down!”—Acts 17:6
But I would suggest that our perilous times (at least in America) are a bit different from theirs.
Their perilous times were filled with the blood of martyrs, torture, imprisonment, and physical desolation.
But our perilous times are more about watching the Biblical foundations of our nation come under constant assault.
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”—Ps. 11:3
Our perilous times are more about the tearing down and destruction of the foundational, godly principles that made our nation great.
For instance, we have witnessed a full on, frontal attack on:
the sanctity and meaning of marriage,
the male/female gender,
the belief in absolute truth,
the value of life coupled with the wholesale slaughter of our unborn children,
These are some of the things that make these times perilous for us!
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Now it goes without saying that those gathered here today and the true church in general will continue ministering in these perilous times.
We will “endure afflictions like a good soldier of Jesus Christ” and “shun the spirit of fear” that would seek to intimidate us into silence.
So what I want to do is bring an encouraging word regarding standing tall for Jesus by pointing out 5 promises for perilous times:
I. Jesus will still be FAITHFUL
2 Tim. 4:17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me…”
—I can go through anything, climb any mountain, walk through any valley if I KNOW the Lord is standing with me!
Our watchword in perilous times is 2 Thes 3:3–“But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.”
Not only will the Lord be FAITHFUL, but:
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II. The seed will still be FRUITFUL
In Matt 13 in the parable of the sower we find a man sowing kingdom seed on four different kinds of soil.
We note immediately that his sowing is done during perilous times of adversity.
—He watches Satan steal the seed from some of his listeners on the wayside.
—Then he sees others on stony places fall away over lack of roots in an atmosphere of persecution.
—Then he watches still others on thorny ground dry up to become unfruitful over worries and lust for riches.
All three of these sights are discouraging things he has to soldier through.
But then we finally see the seed succeed on the good ground!—and it brings forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
So a second promise in perilous times is that the “incorruptible seed of the word of God” as Peter describes it (1 Pet. 1:23), will still be FRUITFUL!
INCORRUPTIBLE means it cannot decay, spoil, rot, dissolve, or disintegrate!
So rather than pull back on sowing in perilous times, we should sow all the more!
Ecc. 11:6 “Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let your hands not be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.
In perilous times the Savior is still FAITHFUL, the seed is still FRUITFUL, and:
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A third promise for perilous times is:
III. The sinner can still be FORGIVEN
For instance, most people when talking about the book of Revelation talk about…
-all the terrible judgments of God,
-the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse
-the cataclysmic events that are poured out on earth, -the emergence of the Antichrist
-the mark of the beast, and so on
But one thing you DON’T hear much about is the huge number of salvations that take place during those perilous times!
Rev. 7:9-10; 13-14 “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”…13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
So even in the worst of perilous times, the sinner can still be FORGIVEN!
We can expect multitudes to be saved in these perilous times!
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In perilous times the Savior is still FAITHFUL, the Seed is still FRUITFUL, and the Sinner can still be FORGIVEN.
And a fourth promise for perilous times:
IV. The scriptures can still FEED
We see in Scripture that, not only did the early church prevail in perilous times, but the great OT prophets also prevailed in extremely perilous times.
For instance, the prophet Jeremiah ministered in a time when his nation was galloping toward judgment.
Jeremiah describes in sad detail the perilous times he lived in:
6:13 “Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness; And from the prophet even to the priest and the people, everyone deals falsely.”
He writes:
6:15 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush.”
And they hated God’s word, “Behold, the word of the Lord is a reproach to them; They have no delight in it.”—6:10
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And Yet!!
He succeeded in his mission, and one of the keys to his victory was God’s word feeding and strengthening his soul!
Jeremiah 15:16 “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart;”
Our sustenance and strength in these perilous times will come from the place of prayer and faithfully feeding on God’s word!
In perilous times:
The Savior is still FAITHFUL,
the Seed is still FRUITFUL,
the Sinner can still be FORGIVEN,
the Scriptures can still FEED!
And finally, a fifth promise for perilous times is…
V. The Spirit can still be FRESH
John writes the following words on the day he began receiving the Book of Revelation:
Rev 1:10 “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet,”
You probably know the backdrop to this passage:
In very perilous times under the terrible persecution of the emperor Domitian, the old Apostle John was exiled to the grim, lonely island called Patmos.
Patmos was a remote and isolated place where Roman prisoners were sent to live in caves or cells, and placed into forced labor.
Life on Patmos meant separation from society and loss of your freedom.
And yet John testifies that the Spirit of the Lord mightily visited him there, and turned his prison into a place of unprecedented revelation!
All of us pastors and church leaders are debtors to the strength, comfort, peace, fellowship, and presence of the Holy Spirit!
And He can be counted on to come to us in FRESH manifestations of strength, comfort, and peace in the midst of perilous times!
In perilous times the Spirit can still visit with a FRESH TOUCH!
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So once again, in perilous times:
The Savior is still FAITHFUL,
the Seed is still FRUITFUL,
the Sinner can still be FORGIVEN,
the Scriptures can still FEED, and,
the Spirit can still be FRESH!
So my message today is to focus on the PROMISES for these perilous times, and make the most of what God has placed in front of you to do!