This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Living in the Last Days.
No child of God can afford to be ignorant in these days in which we live. History is headed for a climax.
Little children, it is the last hour…
John wrote that 2,000 years ago! Ever since Jesus Christ ascended, we have been living in the Last Days.
The Old Testament time was preparing for the coming of Christ. After His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension we entered into “the Last Days”—the interval before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Intercession. Get your head out of the clouds of prophecy, and your knees on the floor to pray for this generation.
Soul-Winning. If you are living for this world, you are only rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Be getting people into the lifeboats of the Gospel, to know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Family. Living in the Last Days is dangerous. Parents and grandparents, be inculcating rock-ribbed truths and values into the hearts and minds and lives of your children and grandchildren.
Comfort. Don’t go around wringing your hands and saying, “Look what the world is coming to…” Say, “Look who is coming to the world!”
All Christians, from the time of John to this time, are to be expecting the return of Jesus Christ at any moment.
There is no sign we are waiting for, no event in history. Christ could have come back three weeks after He ascended. He may come back this afternoon.
The Second Coming of Jesus Christ will be in stages. First the Rapture, then the Great Tribulation, and then Christ returns with His saints to reign for 1,000 years. The Rapture has no signs; it could happen at any moment. But there are plenty of signs for the revelation, when Jesus returns with His saints.
Paul wrote, “Wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10). The word “wait” is a present infinitive—it means to be constantly waiting.
We are not looking for the temple to be rebuilt, for the Antichrist to appear, for the regathering of Israel, for earthquakes, famines, other natural disasters, etc. We are looking for Jesus.
If you say, “I don’t think it will happen today,” that’s a good sign that it might. “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” Matthew 24:44; emphasis added.)
The Bible describes him in many ways—the Beast, the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition. John calls him Antichrist.
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.
The Antichrist will be the epitome, the incarnation of evil, and he comes as Satan’s messiah. The prefix anti- means “against,” and “instead of.” The Antichrist substitutes himself for Christ.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.
We have all seen people who joined churches, received baptism, were in Sunday school class, sang in the choir, and then went off to some strange, esoteric cult. Why? They did not lose their salvation—they never had it. The Holy Spirit is not in them.
“Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1).
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.
The Antichrist is the master liar. He learns this from his father, Satan, the father of lies. (See John 8:44.) The Antichrist deceives people about who Jesus is. If you are wrong about Jesus, it does not matter where you are right.
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
If someone does not believe Jesus is the Son of God come in the flesh, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, don’t you put your arms around them and say, “We’re all headed toward the same place.” That is a lie! (Read 2 John 1:7-11.)
Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
The implication is that if you do not abide, you will miss eternal life.
And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.
The way you know the Father and the Son is through the Word of God.
The word “abide” means “to settle down, to be at home, to remain.” Let the Word of God be at home in you, and you be at home in the Word of God.
Parents and grandparents, be putting mega doses of the Word of God into the hearts and minds of your children and grandchildren. They cannot only get it in Sunday school.
“You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things” (1 John 2:20).
In the Old Testament, to prepare a prophet, priest, or king for service, they would anoint him with oil. We are New Testament prophets, priests, and kings (see Revelation 1:5-6), and we have been anointed with the Holy Spirit.
What does John mean by “you know all things”? Even with human teaching and study, you would never know anything apart from the Holy Spirit. We can preach truth, but only He can impart truth. Abide in Him so that He can teach you in these Last Days.
Don’t be sick of this world—enjoy life every day. But let your heart beat with anticipation. If you abide in Jesus Christ, when He comes, you will not be frightened. You will meet the return of Jesus Christ with anticipation, boldness, and gladness.
The early Christians had a word for such anticipation: maranatha—“Come, Lord Jesus!” Amen!
1 John 2:18-28, 4:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Matthew 24:44; 1 Timothy 4:1; John 8:44; 2 John 1:7-11; Revelation 1:5-6
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!
God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds…
