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  TOUGHEN UP
  by Robert B. Thompson
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Summary: Robert B. Thompson's sermon emphasizes the need for Christians
to be toughened through trials in preparation for the challenges of the
end times.

Duration: 1:01:34 Topics: "Spiritual Warfare", "End Times"
Scripture References: Matthew 24:2-3

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DESCRIPTION
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In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeing things
as they truly are, rather than being influenced by the world's
perception. He highlights the negative impact of media and Satan's
intention to warp our perception. The speaker also addresses the moral
decline in society, particularly in relation to violence and
pornography. Lastly, he discusses the concept of salvation and the
differing views on whether one must stand firm to the end to be saved.
The sermon references Matthew 24:1-8, where Jesus predicts the
destruction of the temple and the disciples inquire about the signs of
his coming and the end of the age.

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CONTENT
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Matthew 24, verses 1 through 8, and here we go. Jesus left the temple
and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his
attention to its buildings. You see all these things, he asked.

I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another.
Everyone will be thrown down. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of
Olives, the disciples came to him privately.

Tell us, they said, when will this happen and what will be the sign of
your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus answered, watch out that no
one deceives you, for many will come in my name claiming I am the Christ
and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see
to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is
still to come.

Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will
be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the
beginning of birth pains.

You know, I read a statistic on the number of earthquakes that have been
happening in the last couple years. It's astonishing. All over the world
the earthquakes seem to be increasing.

I know what the Lord wants me to convey this morning. He's going to
toughen us up and we kind of prefer a Blondie and Dagwood or leave it to
Beaver type family. And that's nice.

But when we're that way, we're not really prepared to help people in
trouble. We haven't had enough trouble ourselves. We haven't had the
development of steel in us that's going to be necessary for the days to
come.

So you can't just go out of here and soak your feet and hands in brine
and get toughened up that way. The Lord will do it. I'm just saying this
as a testimony.

It's going to happen in your family and when it does, and it has
happened already to some of the members of the church, and when it does,
don't think it's strange. It's so that you will not be soft because
people are going to need you. This isn't a nice, happy, cheery rapture.

That's not scriptural. We're going to go through it. Our nation has
sinned grievously.

It is sinning grievously. It's not getting better. It's getting worse.

And God will not put up with that. He never has. He never will.

And we need, people are going to need help. Church people are going to
need help because they're soft. They're soft.

They can't imagine God doing anything in their home that is not
completely understandable and joyous. And when it happens and the bottom
falls out of things, you're going to be able to help them provided you
yourself have been through it. If you haven't been through it, you won't
even understand what they're talking about.

You will not even understand what they're talking about. You think,
well, they must have not have faith or I always knew she married the
wrong man. Or if they raise their kids right, they'd all be college
presidents.

Or if they don't learn in school, it's because they're not trying and
all this other stuff. You have to go through it yourself before you can
even hear what people are saying that are in domestic trouble or that
have problems with their children or whatever. You have to go through it
yourself or you won't even be able to hear them.

And as you do go through it, it will create steel in you and you will
not cave for yourself and you'll be able to impart iron to others. How
does that sound to you? That's the burden this morning. That's what God
is saying.

He's going to toughen us up. The days of leave it to beaver and the
cleaver family and blondie and dagger, that's over for us. That's over
for us.

It's not real. It's not real. Just read the paper.

You'll find out it isn't real. People are in trouble today, even church
people, because God doesn't make a distinction that way. All right.

Imagine 24-1, Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his
disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. And
you've got to remember, Jesus himself was moving toward crucifixion and
these disciples were all moving toward martyrdom. According to church
history, they all were martyred with the possible exception of John.

And so this is not children's games. This is not children's games here.
We're going to be meeting those people someday.

Do you see all these things he asked? I tell you the truth. Not one
stone here will be left on another. Everyone will be thrown away.

Now, this was Herod's temple that they were looking at. It was a cream
colored, not granite, there's a marble, gold. It was on the highest
point of Jerusalem and it was a fortress.

It was spectacular. Many, many years in building. It was a great wonder,
like one of the wonders of the world.

It was marvelous. And the disciples were marveling at it and asking
Jesus to marvel at it, but Jesus didn't even see it as it was. He saw it
as it would be in AD 63, not one stone left on another.

And that's the way God wants us to see things. He wants us to be walking
enough in the Spirit that we will not be bemused by the apparent
situation of things in America. He wants us to be close enough to God so
we can see things as they are.

Jesus saw things as they are. He didn't see this great ornate temple.
This was some 30 years before the Romans demolished it.

30 years is a long time. Many of you here are not even 30 years old, so
you can see that 30 years is a long time before the Lord's Word came to
pass. But as He stood there looking at it, He didn't see what they were
seeing.

And Christ doesn't want you to see what the world is seeing. He wants
you to see things as they are. The barrage of media that is available to
us and impacting on all of us tends to warp perception, and that's
exactly Satan's intention, is to give us the feeling that he moves us
from one thing to another.

Right now, it's the energy crisis. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's somewhere
like minus 50 compared with the things people are going through today in
the world. It just doesn't rank.

But you see, because we're filled with this all the time, and we suppose
this is the way everybody is, the way things are, this is what you're
supposed to worry about, and we don't see as the way the Lord wants us
to see. And the only way you can do that is with a lot of prayer. And
it's going to be necessary in the days to come, because that can work
two ways.

You can look at things and they look great when they're really rotten,
and you can look at things that are really rotten and actually God
seeing them as great. And that's why we have to have the eyes of the
Lord so we don't panic when people are panicking. We don't get careless
when people are jumping around in their flesh, because we know God is
very disturbed about the abortions.

He's very disturbed about the abortions, because it is so contrary to
his nature. God is always concerned about sexual immorality. That has
been one of the ancient sins that goes way back, and it carries terrible
penalties in the body and in the mind and nerves, because God is very
displeased with things that are not in his family order, father, mother,
children, and that are right, are not nasty, but are right.

And anything outside of this is very grievous to the Lord. And killing
fetuses and babies is very grievous to the Lord. And history shows that
he'll put up with this for a while while he's working his will, but not
forever.

And when God moves, it is pretty drastic. And so we see this and we can
even see from just a sense of history and the Bible that our nation is
scorning, scorning the things of God. In fact, one of the creative men
now, someone call him the grandfather of democracy, was the Marquis de
Sade.

I don't know if you know anything about the Marquis de Sade of France,
but we get the term sadism from it. And his philosophy was that I will
do anything that gives me pleasure no matter who it hurts. And he said,
if it would give me pleasure to commit any number of atrocities, I would
do them immediately.

In other words, his philosophy was exactly the opposite of God. God's
philosophy is you never take joy, never at the expense of someone else.
Never.

Wait until you're not hurting anybody. But see, this man espoused this.
And he's called the grandfather of democracy by one man, one scholar,
because that is where you go in democracy.

You finally get down to where the greatest good is what gives me
pleasure. This is entirely opposite to take up your cross and follow me.
And so on are some of our movies now that deal with the macabre and
sadism and other things are such, as someone said a hundred years ago,
it would have caused people to throw up.

And now they giggle. We are really in much more of a moral decline than
the media. You know, it's laughable.

It really is laughable about people are saying, why, why, why are kids
violent? Well, they are immersed, immersed, immersed in violence in
their songs and in the television and in the movies and in the arcade
games. And they say, oh, what's what's wrong? I mean, talk about stupid.
If you immerse children in violence, they're going to be violent.

Yes. You know, what a revelation. And so our nation is doing things that
God is going to have to judge.

You're just going to have to do it. Billy Graham said, if he doesn't
have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. So I'm not here to say that
awful.

And that's not my point. God will get good out of everything. What I'm
saying is he's going to judge.

And when he does, Blondie and Dagwood is going to are going to be no
more. And so when it happens to you and it shall happen to you, if God
has good things for you in terms of helping others as well as yourself,
don't be amazed. Don't try to retreat into America, which no longer
exists.

Sally forth in the future because God has great things for us. And no
matter how tough it gets, God is tougher. OK, God is well able, well
able to laugh at those who seek to remove his constraints.

Second Psalm. And he wants you to laugh with him, not not fret because
unless you can do something about it, because you're only causing
spiritual static and harming yourself and leads to sin. We're not here
to fret this morning.

We see it coming. People are like this historically. They never learn.

As soon as a nation gets prosperous as early Rome did, they're instantly
into sexual perversion. They're instantly into all kinds of terrible
things. In the days of Noah, it was violence.

In Sodom and Gomorrah, it was perversion. It's always something. And God
eventually acts.

Well, God is saying to us this morning, I'm going to toughen you up to
get ready. Maybe 30 years from now, you may escape it for a while. But
if God has something good for you, eventually the bottom will drop out
of everything and you will learn to walk in God.

And it will cause steel in you. When God is through with it, he'll
restore everything. Just think about Job.

God will restore everything. There's no problem there. The problem is
that we don't fly around and try to grasp that which no longer is
graspable and mess ourselves up.

And those who would be should be looking to us. Am I making sense this
morning? This is what God is saying to us right now. I tell you, it's
very clear.

All right. So Jesus, as well as these disciples he was talking to, were
all facing cruel deaths. All facing cruel deaths.

So this is not children's games. This is the real stuff. As Jesus was
sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.

Tell us, they said, when will this happen? You know, when is this thing
going to be torn down? And what will be the sign of your coming and of
the end of the age? Now, there's three questions there. One, when is the
temple going to be torn down? Two, when are you coming? When are you
coming back? And three, when will come the end of the age? Now, notice
it doesn't say the end of all things. This refers to the end of the
church age.

It doesn't refer to the end of the world. That comes after the thousand
year period when the earth and the heaven flee from the face of God.
This is talking about the end of the church age.

When will be the end of the church age? Now, I want you to notice a
word, and especially, this is very important because of the diluting and
weakening message of the pre-tribulation rapture. This is very
important. If you'll notice the word sign of your coming, how many see
that? The sign of your coming, do you see that? That word in the Greek
is parousia.

Then I hear people say parousia, which is all right. But actually, the
Greek pronunciation is parousia. All right, that word is the only word
for coming that is used in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, where the rapture
doctrine is.

See, they say, well, the rapture is something different from this.
That's the only Greek term used for coming in 1st and 2nd Thessalonians
is parousia. So there's only one coming.

There's not a secret coming, because if there were, there would be a
different Greek term in 1st Thessalonians where the rapture doctrine is.
There'd be a different Greek term. But it's the same Greek term.

So we know this has been a deception or delusion. That's one thing to
know, Shelley. That's important to know.

It'll be on the tape anyway. OK, so what's the first problem? What does
he say? Watch out that no one deceives you. Well, the whole evangelical
church is in deception.

It is correct on the blood atonement. It is correct on the virgin birth.
It is correct on the bodily resurrection of Christ and on the bodily
return of Christ.

It is correct on these things. And then it flies off in a million
different directions, all of which end up by saying, you shall not
surely die. They all end up, cool, it's going to be OK.

And I'm here to tell you, that's not the message of the Holy Spirit.
That is not the message of the Holy Spirit. That's a crowd-pleasing
doctrine.

That's not what the Holy Spirit is saying. You know, this has always
been the case. The prophets are always saying something different from
the rest of Israel.

And I don't claim to be a prophet. What I am is a pain in the neck.
That's my gift.

Watch out that no one deceives you. Well, how do you do that? Praying.
See, someone comes and preaches, and there's a big hullabaloo and
everything, and the music, and everybody's all excited.

And what they don't know is they're just enthusiastic and all stirred up
emotionally, like you do when you see a parade. You see a parade, and
you get all stirred up. That isn't the Holy Spirit.

Your emotions get stirred up by music. And then people don't pray. Like
we just went through this flap with the prosperity message.

Well, that is exactly contrary to what Paul taught in Timothy, that we
should try to be real. It's exactly the opposite. And there's all the
charismatic people, Oh, tell me more.

And running up to the platform and throwing money on the platform at the
speaker's feet so that he told them if they do that, they'd get back ten
times the money. All this stuff. We know it's wrong.

And here they go, just like sheep to the slaughter. Oh, it feels good.
And they said, Jesus.

Well, that isn't how you watch out for deception. You watch out for
deception by testing everything against the Bible and in prayer. And you
don't go by what you feel is good.

Because Satan can simulate the Holy Spirit, and you can't tell the
difference. Pentecostal people don't know that. They think, well, you
know, this is the Spirit.

It isn't the Spirit 99 times out of 100. They don't know the difference.
And so if you don't want to be deceived, don't trust the pastor or the
evangelist.

Go to Christ for yourself. Then if I'm wrong, at least you'll be right.
And you can set me straight.

I'm always willing to be set straight, but I've got to see it in the
Word. I'm not going to go by the popularity contest. I don't have to
worry about that.

I'm never going to win anyway. That's all right. All right.

Many will come in my name claiming I am the Christ. Now, we haven't seen
much of that. There was some of that just before Jesus came.

There was something like 70 false Christs. There's been a few around
pretending to be God. I don't want to mention any names.

I don't want to ruin anybody's religion. But there's been men around
that got themselves confused with God. So I don't know if that qualifies
or if they actually have to say I am the Christ or just puff themselves
up.

I don't know. And he says they will deceive many. They'll deceive many
people.

Why is that? Because people are careless. If you promise them something
good, you know. I was at a meeting once, and this was for pastors.

It wasn't the Foursquare. It was another meeting for us in the
Foursquare. And this man on the platform said, if anybody will give
$1,000, I'll prophesy over him.

Yeah. And so this fellow gave $1,000. If he didn't come down, prophesy
over him.

That kind of stuff goes on. And if anybody will give me $1,000, he'll
never have cancer. No one in this family will ever have cancer.

Well, the people believe this stuff. If that happened to me now when I
was in that meeting, I would have stood up and said something. But I was
much younger and better looking than I am now.

I am the Christ. And now notice here, you will hear of wars and rumors
of wars. Now, when these things happen, people say, it's the end.

It's the end. But look what the Lord says. See that you're not alarmed.

Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. So wars are not a
sign of the end. It shows you that Christ was in the Spirit, though,
because he knew that he wasn't going to be turning around and coming
next week.

I think the Apostle Paul thought that Christ was coming in his own
lifetime. But you see, Jesus is laying out history here. He's the only
person that's ever laid it out like this.

We've had a number of utopian philosophers that told the New Age right
around the corner. But Jesus was right. Wars, wars, wars.

There's always wars going on. There's wars going on today. There's
always wars going on.

Here are men who kill each other. Nation will rise against nation and
kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in
various places.

And these are the beginning of the end of the age. Right? Oh yeah. What
does it say? Birth pains are a good thing, except for the mother right
at the time.

But they are a good thing, because it means something good's going to
happen. Now get that, because he's not talking about here, whoa, ain't
it awful? He's telling you something good's going to happen. So don't be
alarmed at these things.

God's in control. Something good's going to come out of this. So don't
join the ain't it awful crowd.

They say, if they say anything, this is the beginning of birth pains.
It's not pleasant at the time, but when it's through there'll be great
joy. So don't join the negative crowd.

Pessimists. Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to
death. Well, we don't think that's particularly cool.

But I'll tell you this, people that have experienced this have said that
when they're in trouble, Christ is with them. And you won't get
persecution grace until you're persecuted. You won't get martyrdom grace
until you're martyred.

But Christ has a way of appearing on the scene all of a sudden and makes
it okay. So remember that when you're facing fear. Never deny Christ.

If it costs your life, never deny Christ. You've got to get that in.
You've got to get that in advance.

I remember. Audrey said, I'm always coming out with the grossest thing.
Here's another gross one.

And it's true. But nevertheless, this happened to a lady that used to be
in this church. She had a dream and someone came to her house all of a
sudden and commanded that she deny Christ.

And what they took is they took her and stuck her head in the toilet
under the water all of a sudden like that. And, you know, you can
picture to yourself how that would affect you. I mean, this how you
know, if you had a month to think about it, maybe you could pray
through.

But this happened all of a sudden. And we were we were talking and she
told me about this dream. And I said, yeah, you've got to get prepared
in advance.

You can't wait till you're in the middle of something like that. And
then then say, I'm not going to deny Christ. You know, you've got to be
prepared in advance because the communists and terrorists and others
have a way of striking in the darkness.

At two o'clock in the morning, when people's psychological strength is
at its lowest ebb, they come in crashing on the door, stick a pistol in
your nose and then say, we're taking your kids unless you deny Christ.
Well, you can't wait until then and pray or call up the pastor or send
an email. You've got to do it in advance.

You've got to get tough in advance. You've got to say, I'll never deny
Christ. And I'll never deny Christ.

And then you think through yourself. So you drown. Drowning is one of
the easiest deaths there is.

No big deal. It's just the shock of it, you know, and the confinement
and claustrophobia all acting together. But actually, because I know I
nearly drowned.

I was up at Old Orchard Beach in Maine and I was in the hands of a
babysitter, a teenager, and my mother put me in her charge. So she says,
take him down to the water. So she was holding my hand, taking me down
to the water.

Fine. That's great. You know, I went to the water, but she wasn't
watching me.

She was looking all around. And the first thing you know, it was over my
head. I can still remember that.

She let me ride in. She didn't know it. And the water was over my head.

Well, there was no pain or anything. Drowning is a very nice death. It's
much better than dying of cancer or something.

It's over in a couple of minutes. You just all of a sudden you're with
the Lord. So you have to think this through.

So you have to say, well, you know, they're not going to scare me. If
they come up and point a .357 magnum at me, go ahead and pull the
trigger. I'm out of here.

I have no more problems. I'll be ready. And then when the Lord comes
back, I'll be with him.

Don't deny Christ. Do not deny Christ. And I've told you before, the
devil has ways of making it easy.

You know, when the government comes around, they send around people and
say, well, you know, here, just offer a couple of grains to Caesar and
say he's God. You know, and I know it's a bunch of foolishness. Let's
get it over with.

See, it doesn't come always, you know, with a gun in your nose.
Sometimes it comes in very easy ways. Now, the Lord spoke to me about
that one time in kind of a vision.

We were in a large charismatic church. And he said, how many people in
this church, if it was put to them, just don't talk in tongues in
church. Do it in private, but just don't talk in tongues.

We can't have it. It's against our program. And I'm sorry to say, but
we'll just have to remove the children from your home.

Just don't talk in tongues in church. See, do you see what I'm saying?
From the looks of some of you, I think you would agree. You can't do
that.

Because, you see, what comes next? Don't talk in tongues at all in your
home. See, once you let down that thing, you're done. You have to be
ready.

I talk in tongues before God, in the Holy Spirit, when I feel it's
appropriate. And I'm a good taxpayer, a good citizen. But I'm going to
obey God rather than man.

And it comes to that, it came to that with the apostles. So you have to
prepare yourself in advance, because you get caught short with this
thing. And then you think, you know, I'll lose my kids.

What's the big deal about talking in tongues? What's the big deal about
it is that the church is the lampstand of God and its purpose. The
church does not have a social purpose. The church has a divine purpose.

As Lisa was pointing out this morning, we don't come to worship so we'll
feel better. We come to worship so that God will feel better. And when
God says don't talk in tongues, then we'll quit talking in tongues.

But we're not going to be told how to worship God by the government.
We're ready to die before we'll do that. Now, if not, if you're not,
you're going to have problems.

I'm telling you, I can remember when we were involved in Christian
school work way back then. That was before we even came to this church.
At that time, there were kids being taken away from their parents
because they were in a Christian school.

And it wasn't doing, in one case, the water fountain wasn't at the right
height according to government specifications. In another case, they
wanted the restrooms with the little children where they were
coeducational. And the doors open and all kinds of things that Christian
people won't put up with.

And they were taking kids out of their home. This has cooled down quite
a bit because there's been some Christian lawyers got in the act. But
that was going on.

That actually was going on. And you've got to be ready for this. You
can't say, oh, OK, you know, if you say that's the way it's got to be
because I don't want to lose my kids.

Well, you better get ready to lose your kids. We're in a kind of a
fool's paradise right now. A lot of people today in the world,
Christians, are losing their kids.

For Christ, toughen up, the Lord says, toughen up. You have to work this
out in advance. You have to take everything in your life, including your
life, your health, your family, and put it on the altar of God.

And until you do that, you are very vulnerable, very vulnerable. You
have to very consciously name each thing and say, Lord, this is on the
altar. Thank you for it.

The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. But one thing, Lord, I will never
deny your name. It's got to be done in advance because we're in a very
unusual situation in terms of church history in America in the year
2001.

In terms of church history, a very unusual situation. I read about the
Jewish Holocaust. That isn't even understandable.

And they were God's chosen people, are God's chosen people. All right.
Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death.

And they were. But you see, he's talking about the future. He said when
we've had wars and all this and we're near the birth pains, that's when
this is going to happen.

We're not through yet. I heard one person say years ago, and it struck
me, it was a preacher, distinguished minister. And he said the Jews have
had their Holocaust.

The Gentiles are going to have theirs one day. I never forgot that. You
will be hated.

And the scripture, Romans 2. You will be hated by all nations because of
me. Now, you see, that's why I say we're in a fool's paradise. We are.

We used to be, we Christians, used to be loved in America. Now we're
tolerated. But we're getting looked at kind of, I think that problem is
coming from that, those Christian right.

Well, eventually that is going to cause problems, the attitude about the
Christian right. See, people that are of weak character. How many here
are of weak character? Pass the cheese.

People that are of weak character have this trait. You ready? You'll
find this in drunks very often. They have this trait.

When the problem comes, it's not my fault. And they look for somebody to
blame. If you've had experience with drunks, you know what I'm talking
about.

And not just them, but people of weak character. They will not accept
that the problems they have caused were by them. They look for someone
to blame.

That's a characteristic of weak people. And Americans tend to be weak.
They've been coddled by Madison, by the, you know, we're all consumers.

And we've been told we deserve this, we deserve that, we deserve the
next thing. American people are weak that way. And when there's trouble,
they're going to look for somebody to blame.

If they can't blame the government, they'll look around to see who's to
blame. Of course, our politicians, the evil ones, will provide them with
stereotypes, with scapegoats. The Christian right, those evangelicals,
the fundamentalists, they're the problem.

Prepare yourself. You will be hated. That's the norm.

What's he talking about, getting toughened up? That's what the Lord's
telling us this morning. Amen? Take a deep breath. Fasten your seatbelt
and your side air cushions.

And your shoulder straps. The Lord's talking about getting toughened up.
Okay? If He wasn't, I wouldn't be talking about it.

You will be hated. How many enjoy being hated? It doesn't say you'll be
hated by some of the nations. It says you'll be hated by all of the
nations.

Get prepared for it. Get prepared for it. When Satan's through deceiving
us and giving us worldly things and ruining us with material things,
then it will turn.

I don't know what it's going to take. Lord, that's His business. Because
of me.

Not because of our foolish religious antics. But because of Christ. If
we suffer because we've been a fool, then that's our problem.

At that time, many will turn away from the faith. How about you? And
will betray and hate each other. These are people who once been
Christians.

Many will turn away from the faith and hate each other. Why? They're
looking for somebody to blame. I'm not comfortable anymore.

It must be his fault. It must be her fault. It must be the pastor's
fault.

It must be somebody's fault. It's certainly not mine. It's got to be
somebody's fault.

When you hear that from people, just pray for them because they're weak.
They're just weak. A weak person cannot stand taking the blame for his
actions.

He can't stand it. He's got to find somebody to blame. Or something to
blame.

All right. Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.
Well, we've had that.

We've got it today. And Shelley can tell you all about it. She's trying
to talk to Christian people about the Bible.

And they go to their pastor. And the pastor shows them from commentaries
why the Bible doesn't mean what it says. So we're not talking about in
the future when Big Brother comes.

We're talking about right here in River City in the year 2001. They are
in deception. They're preaching things that are not true.

And that's why the people are not growing. You can't grow on grace,
heaven, rapture, teaching. You cannot grow on that.

They're not getting corn. They're not getting the wheat of the word. And
so the people are weak.

Deception. That's true today. And you asked Shelley about it after.

All right. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will
grow cold. The King James doesn't say the love of most.

But all the other translations say the love of the majority or the love
of the most. That means most Christians are going to backslide. It's not
talking about the unsaved because the unsaved were never hot.

If people have become cold, it's because they once were hot. So we're
talking about Christian people only. Now here's the thing.

Here's where the deception has come in. The churches have been taught to
fear the tribulation. The tribulation is nothing to be feared.

What is to be feared is wickedness. You see how clever Satan is? He
appeals to fleshly Christians and he says, Now don't worry because God's
going to take you out any day now. They've been saying that since 1880,
I think.

1870 or something. They've been saying God's going to take you out any
time now. All right.

Fine. But you see what it does? You see the impact that has on people?
The Holy Spirit never says that. The Holy Spirit deals about sin.

Sin and repentance. Not about escape. Sin and repentance.

The false prophets talk about escape. Because it's a comfortable
message. I should preach it sometime.

You'd feel a lot better. Folks, don't worry about a thing. I know we're
coming up to an energy shortage.

I know we're going to have that. Everybody's saying that. But don't
worry because tonight we're going to practice jumping up and down next
to our chairs because any moment now the Lord is going to take us out.

Well, that makes people feel good, obviously. You tell people there's no
evil day and everything is going to be great and you're going to go up
there and be looking down on the poor Jews trying to evangelize in the
face of Antichrist. And you're up there and nothing can touch you and
it's wonderful.

Just any moment now. Just any moment now. It could happen before I get
through preaching.

So why are you worrying about the energy crisis? Or your bills? Or your
health? Or your kids? Don't worry about it. We're not going to be here,
honey. We're not going to be here.

You see why that message is appealing? Do you see why it's appealing?
Don't you think that's a lot more appealing than my standing up here and
saying God wants you to toughen up? What? It's a marvel we've got as
many people in this church as we do. I congratulate you. You're a tough
group but you're going to get tougher.

All right. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will
grow cold. You do not have to worry about tribulation.

But you do have to worry about wickedness. You say, well, I'm not
wicked. Well, ask the Lord for a report card today.

Maybe you're doing wicked things and you don't know about it. That can
happen. All right.

The love of the majority. So there'll be a remnant that will stand. But
the majority are going to cave because of the availability of adultery
and fornication, pornography, drugs, being satiated with entertainment,
everything.

This is wickedness and it will cause most Christians to fall. Numerous
Christians today, pastors and others, are watching the pornography on
the Internet. It's all right.

I'm saved by grace. What's the big deal? Deceit. Deceit.

Deceit. Wickedness. Make your love grow cold.

How are you going to watch pornography and then get down and say, Jesus,
break the yoke. Well, anyway. But he.

Now, I want you to notice this verse. But he who stands firm to the end
will be saved. Now, I've got a Bible home with footnotes.

The evangelical Bible says this is not true because salvation is a
sovereign action of God. It's not true that you have to stand firm to
the end will be saved. It's right in the footnotes.

Right in the footnotes. God says you have to stand firm to be saved. The
footnotes say salvation is a sovereign action of God.

And so it cannot be affected by whether you stand or you don't. I mean,
whoa. Hello.

You know, are we on the same mental capacities or what? Well, you know
what the excuse is. This is talking only to Jews. Apparently, because
they don't have any alternative.

They're saying right there that doesn't apply to you because you're
saved by a sovereign grace. So they have to come up with something. So
what they say is they have a saying.

They say that's Jewish ground. They go all around. They go to in John
which says you have to be born again.

Well, that's everybody's ground. When you come to verses like this, this
is Jewish ground. I mean, the deception, the lack of competent
scholarship is so evident.

You would think the whole church would rise up. Oh, well, it's in my
Bible. It's right there in the footnotes.

Inspired footnotes. It doesn't mean what it says. You know, when you say
he that endures to the end will be saved, I want you to know you open up
an enormous can of peas because it does away with our whole concept of
salvation.

See, we view salvation as a ticket that we buy at some point in our
life. You'll hear people say, oh, yes, we ever saved? Yes, I was saved
five years ago. I can take you right to the old campground where I was
saved.

See, that's not a scriptural concept. A lot of things we say are not
scriptural, like a burden for souls or make a decision for Christ. It
doesn't appear in the Bible.

It's back to the Bible hour. You see, when you say he that endures to
the end will be saved, you're saying salvation is future. That a little
swift? The truth is, salvation is a process.

You can say at such and such a particular time, I was made aware that
Christ died for my sins and I accepted that. So, where are you now?
You're on your way in the plan of salvation. So, it's past in that
sense.

You can say that's when I started. Now, is it present? Of course, it
says work out your salvation with fear and trembling. So, it's present
as well as past.

Is it future? Yes. It says he that endures to the end shall be saved.
Well, can I know I'm saved right now? What you can know right now is
that your heart is right in the sight of God.

But to be saved, you have to endure to the end. At least somebody said
that that I have a lot of confidence in. Much more than I do in the
footnotes.

You see how the bottom line is you shall not surely die? You see how
that is? That's the original word of Satan. It's still operating. Don't
worry, you won't surely die.

But that Bible doesn't teach that. It teaches that you have to endure.
And what are you enduring in this case? Wickedness.

You have to stand when people around you are falling. That's the
context, isn't it? How many agree that's the context? Two and a half
people. You don't look very convinced.

You know they say a man convinced against his will is of the same
opinion still. Let's take that once again. There's a great bunch of
people that were hot.

And then there was a great bunch of wickedness. And then the majority of
the people got cold. And then Jesus said if you endure this trauma, you
will be saved.

Consequently, if you don't, you won't be saved. So much for eternal
security. Oh, for consistency and logic.

Cold friends sometimes. Now here, let's have a better look at this.
Standing firm, by the way, is standing firm against what? Wickedness.

And we're not even discussing tribulation at this point. We probably
won't even get to it this morning. So if you want to know about
tribulation, you have to come tonight.

Alright. This gospel of the kingdom. Not of the church, rapture, grace.

This gospel of the kingdom. The rule of God. Righteousness.

Will be preached in the whole world. Well, that doesn't mean the whole
world. But I think it means the whole world.

How many believe it means the whole world? So, so much for all this talk
about the doors are closing. The doors are closing. What the doors are
closing to is the efforts of man.

You don't close the door in God's face. That's ridiculous. Alright.

Jesus said it will happen. Oh, I am getting to the abomination that
caused desolation. Hallelujah.

Well, that's a juicy thing. This gospel of the kingdom will be preached
in the whole world so that everyone may be saved. Say amen.

Well, thank you. I'm tired. I might as well go to sleep right now.

Join the group. It doesn't say to get people saved. It doesn't say to
heal the lost and dying world.

You say, well, isn't that right? No, it's humanism. What does it say?
They preach for what? Dyslexia. What does it say? Yeah, I've been
preaching the whole world.

For what? Alright, do you see the difference? God said to Ezekiel this.
Listen to this. This is what he said to Zeke.

He said, Zeke, if you tell the sinner about his sin, and he dies in his
sin, after you've told him, you're home free. He said, now, if you don't
warn him, and he dies in his sin, then I'm going to require his blood at
your hands. But if you tell him, and he dies.

See, he didn't say, get them saved. He said, bear witness. Tell them
that they're in their sin.

Bear witness. Bear witness. And if they go ahead in their sin and die,
which they will, there's no blood on you.

You have done all I ask to do. Now, we need to know that, because the
human cry today is, take your gifts and go out and save a lost and dying
world. That's antichrist democracy and humanism all rolled together.

That's not what you do with your gifts. What you do with your gifts is
go to the feet of Jesus and ask Him what you're supposed to do. If you
don't, you're the false prophet.

You're running around controlled by your own brain instead of by the
head, Jesus Christ. And that is a great fork in the road we're at today
in the charismatic community. A great fork in the road.

People do not understand that the purpose of the church is not to save
the world. The purpose of the church is to give the light of God. And it
can only be done as we are righteous.

So, you see, it's a potpourri of misunderstandings. All right, so now we
come to a very juicy thing. We're almost through here.

You're doing real well. All right. I don't want to flatter you too much,
because I want you to be tough, all right? So I'll have to run a fine
line here.

All right. So when you see... And you're supposed to say, oh, doctor,
operate on us. I don't care how it hurts.

So when you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes
desolation spoken of through the prophet Daniel. Now, I have always
preached this passage, meaning that the Jews are going to rebuild the
temple and that Antichrist will go into the oracle, that is, into the
holy of holies and sit between the wings of the cherubim and say he is
God. And this may be true.

This may be true. But in that case, you couldn't see it. And I found a
rendering here.

You know, if you look enough at the renderings, you can prove your own
theories. Daniel 9.27. And I nearly jumped because I was beginning to
think that this might be the case. And boy, if I didn't find it in the
footnotes, which are small.

So I'll put on my binoculars. Daniel 9.27. Now, grab a hold of this.
This is one, shall we, to lay on those people up there.

He will confirm, referring to Antichrist, he will confirm a covenant
with many. No, wait a minute. No, no, this is the Lord.

This is the Lord. You can't hardly tell me, but this is the Lord.
Antichrist doesn't confirm covenants with anybody.

He will confirm, the Lord will confirm a covenant with many for one
seven. One seven in the NIV means one week or seven years. Seven years
in this case, probably.

In the middle of the seven, in the middle of this last great week, which
is Daniel's last week, you know, that scholars talk about. He will put
an end to sacrifice and offering. He's changed pronouns here.

Maybe he's talking about Antichrist. I don't know. But that's not the
point.

He will put an end to sacrifice and offering. That means in the middle
of the week, there's going to be a great revival in the first half of
Daniel's 70th week. A great revival, a Lateran revival.

And then in the latter part of the week, this is what's going to happen.
He'll put an end to sacrifice and offering. I was talking about the
wheat offering.

As I understand it means that in the cities of the earth, you will not
be able to get saved and you will not be able to receive the Holy
Spirit. In the middle of the week. And this is before the Lord comes.

There's going to be a great revival. And then the spiritual darkness is
going to get so great that you won't be able to get saved except Christ
to receive the Holy Spirit. That's what he's talking about.

Talking about the grain offering. That's the Pentecost. But this is what
I'm after.

And on a wing of the temple, he will set up an abomination that causes
desolation. Well, I thought to myself, I'll bet you anything. Antichrist
stands for self-will.

That's what he is. Antichrist is a worship of your own will. Very
closely related to democracy, Antichrist is.

It's a worship of your own will. I'm the captain of my soul. That's
Antichrist.

Okay. Now that's where Jesus was tempted. How many remember where Jesus
was tempted? It says Satan brought him up to the pinnacle or the highest
point of the temple.

And what did Satan say to him? You're not sure, are you? Jump off. You
don't have to get profound. And I mean, that was way up in the air.

You want to remember that Jerusalem was already on a mountain. And then
this was the highest place of Jerusalem, the highest place of the
temple. So the Lord was really up there.

And Satan put him there. There's Jesus with all this power, all this
knowledge of God. And Satan said, jump off.

But that isn't all that he said. What else did he say? Luke 4, Grace.
This is what he said.

It is written, the angels will hold you up in your hands so you don't
stumble. So jump off. Now, see, that's facing the charismatic move
today.

You've got this knowledge of God. You've got these gifts and all these
things. Now, show us.

He prefaced it by saying what? If you are the Son of God. And that's
called presumption. Presumption.

Or self-direction in religious things based on the word. When you hear
preachers say, take off your glasses and smash them. And God will heal
you.

And you don't get healed. That's the false prophet. That's presumption.

They say, well, the young pastors, look, go ahead and borrow this much
money or write a check for this amount. No, you don't have it in the
bank, but it'll be there. And pastors do this.

Preachers do this. Tell people to do these things. The prosperity
message, the faith message is a pinnacle of the temple message.

You take the gifts of God and you use them. It sounds right. But the
Bible says they'll bury you up in their hands.

So what's the big problem? Jump off. So it says he will set up on the
wing of the temple. The abomination isn't going to be inside in the
oracle.

It's going to be on a wing of the temple. So I went back to Luke and
Matthew, where the account of the temptation are both recorded in Luke
and Matthew. To see if it might say wing.

Because I thought, wouldn't that be neat? That what he's setting up
there is on the very thing where Christ was tempted. Setting up some
kind of a statue or something to show that he can jump off the temple.
Do you see what I'm saying? He's tying it into that third temptation of
Christ.

How many see that? You don't see it? You do see it? Okay. But I searched
and I searched. NIV says highest point, highest point.

Okay, I can't make it. Until, ta-da! I went to the footnotes. Bless
them! And this is what it says.

Get ready for this. This is the NIV. And boy, was my feeling about this
justified.

This is an alternate rendition of verse 27. Or, that's how they start
off in alternate. Or, This is an alternate rendition, which fits me.

I'm perfectly happy with it. But it brings up something that I never
thought of. That the temple that is built will be abominable.

And why will it be abominable? Tell me. It will be built because the
Jews at this time cannot offer their sacrifices. The Christians are the
only ones that have the blood.

So they can say Torah, Torah, Torah, Torah all they want to, but they
can't fulfill the Torah because they have no place to offer sacrifice.
So the Torah, they're not following the Torah. We are because we have a
blood offering in Christ.

But they don't. But they will if they build the temple. Now, how do you
think God will feel about people offering bulls and goats and birds
after Christ has died on the cross? It'll be an abomination.

Jews or no Jews, it'll be an abomination. Boy, did that open up my eyes.
So, according to the Bible, where it says, in Matthew 24, when you see
this, you're going to be able to see it because it won't be in the
oracle.

It'll be up on the pinnacle of the temple. Right where Christ passed his
greatest test. Up there in the place of humility.

Talk about a cross perched up there like a seagull on top of the highest
point of the temple. Complete futility. And yet he was, you know, just
starting this ministry.

Complete futility. Oh, you're ready to start your ministry. You're
anointed.

You're the son of God. God has spoken to you. Great.

The scriptures have spoken. They'll bury you up in your hands. Fly like
a bird.

Son of God. Well, he didn't do it. Jesus doesn't move unless the Father
tells him.

We need to learn that lesson. Gifts or no gifts. But here comes old
Antichrist saying, I'm one of the good old boys.

You've all got God within you. Now, I'm going to put up here a statue of
a man and I'm going to show you that that's where the power is. Right up
there in the very place where Jesus denied it.

Hallelujah. On an abominable temple. On the pinnacle of an abominable
temple.

Hallelujah. Shall we stand?

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Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/11/SID11200.mp3
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/robert-b-thompson/toughen-up/
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