The Real Jesus of the Last Days — Carter Conlon

Praise God good morning Times Square Church. Bless the Lord. If you could go to Matthew Chapter 24 I'm going to be speaking the fourth part in the series that I've been sharing in this church on finishing the race.

I happen to believe that we're Coming around the corner of time as it has been known and the end is in sight. No man knows the day or the hour as the scripture says but we do know the season we're living in it is obvious That Christ is coming soon for his church.

The Real Jesus Amid Last-Days Deception

I Want to talk to you this morning about the real Jesus of the last days the real Jesus. As you see in the scriptures, there's going to be a lot of Jesus's presented to this Generation, there's only one real one.

Now father, I thank you for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I thank you God for the power to speak these words. I Thank you for the unction Lord to make them live. They've got to live in us Lord, or it's just another accumulation of knowledge that we will easily discard.

Help us Lord to embrace these words to keep them at the forefront of our mind and heart. Especially in this day we're living in Lord, give me the strength that I need to speak this the clarity of mind.

God the anointing that can only come from heaven. Lord, there has to be a multiplication of your word to make it apply to every mind every understanding every situation. And so I trust you to do that today Lord.

Thank you that in all things Jesus Christ, you will be lifted up and glorified alone. We thank you in your precious name. Amen. The real Jesus of the last days. Matthew chapter 24 beginning at verse 23.

Then if any man shall say to you lo here is Christ or there. Believe it not for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and Shall so great signs and wonders in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect false Christs false prophets great signs and wonders.

Remember these words that Jesus spoke. Behold I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say to you behold, he's in the desert. Go not forth. Behold he's in the secret chambers. Believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west.

So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Now this text tells us that in the last days in the last of the last days both calamity on the earth and religious deception will reach Epic proportions.

There will be famines. There will be pestilences. There will be wars. There will be rumors of wars. There'll be even signs in the heavens. All of these things will begin to increase Along with a religious deception aimed at the professing Church of Jesus Christ.

Now Satan has no need to deceive those who already belong to him. The deception is going to be aimed at the church the professing Church of Jesus Christ the casual believer the sincere believer those who Attend church every week and those who attend only casually.

There's a deception coming and it's already here, but it's going to intensify in the coming days. Paul tells us in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 that the final and ultimate act of mankind's rebellion against God Will be when a satanically and dwelt man sits in the temple in Jerusalem.

There will the temple will be rebuilt most likely you and I will live to see this. This Satanically indwelt man will sit in the temple. He's known as the Antichrist and he will declare himself to be God.

That's the ultimate act of mankind's rebellion against God. That's where it all began and remember Satan came into the Garden of Eden and he told Adam and Eve his own Philosophy his own theology as it is that God is not the only one that has the words of life.

He's not the only one that knows right and wrong. If you partake of what I'm sitting before you your eyes will be opened you can join me and Together we'll be as God and we will know good and evil we will we will be the ones.

And what a mess that has brought an end to the world as humankind is constantly looking for and Declaring and re-declaring that which is right and that which is wrong. Do you notice man left to himself?

What was wrong a year ago is right today. And what's right today will be wrong next year and it's always good becomes evil and evil becomes good. Set your watch by it folks. That's the way it works when any society falls away from God.

That which we knew as evil becomes good. That which we knew as good becomes evil. This time of rebellion is Going to be preceded by a falling away. Paul said of many who had most likely professed or at least had some inclination towards being the followers of Jesus Christ, I call it the finish line of a race of deception the final end of humankind having embraced the lie.

The lie that men need no redemption. He can be just as God is Declaring things to be what he wants them to be chart his own course finish his own race and enter into his own Imagined glory, which is called hell.

His own glory. What a foolish thing humankind is without God. John chapter 6, please if you go there with me very quickly in your Bibles I'm going to talk to you about the falling away in our generation.

I believe will look very much Like it did in these pages of Scripture. John chapter 6 in verse 53. Now keep in mind These verses of Scripture. Come before Christ going to the cross the society of their day turning into a Jesus madness as it is a Madness against everything of God against that which represents God against actually God himself.

Now these people are about to go into this. They're not aware of it. But Christ is aware of it. Just like you and I in our generation today. I Hate to have to even say these words. But it seems to me that there's a revulsion against the things of God.

That is seemingly on the increase almost by the hour in our society in our world today. Now Jesus says to these people verse 53. Then Jesus said to them verily verily I say unto you except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood.

You have no life in you. Now what he's telling them is that you don't have in yourselves what it takes to get through. You need forgiveness and you need to become wholehearted partakers of the life of God that's being made available to you.

Christ is saying through the giving of my body. My body is going to be given for you and through the sacrifice that that is going to be there's going to be life given to you and You're not going to be able to get through without you have to become a full partaker of that life.

There's no half measure of Christianity is going to get through the days ahead of us folks. And I say it as a shepherd. I say it as a pastor. I Say it as a man who I've got something so burning so deep within me that The half-hearted are not going to make it.

You're going to turn To a false Christ in this last hour of time and Jesus is saying You have to you have to consume me. You have to trust me for your redemption. You have to you have to get into the promises of God that are provided for you.

And they you've got to literally eat this book. It's got to become part of your mind and your thinking not just your library. Not just an accumulation of knowledge, but it but it's got to be knowledge that has Transformed you because you and I have embraced it as the ultimate truth in our lives.

We won't make it. Otherwise, I Don't care how devout you think you are how strong you are in your natural mind or body. There's a day of darkness coming and deception that nobody apart from the Christ within us will be able to get us through this.

Total Participation in Christ's Life and Mission

Who so eats my flesh verse 54 and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me and I in him as the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father.

So he that eats me even he shall live by me in other words. The life that you will have will not be your own. The strength will not be your own. The direction will not be your own. The vision to get through will not be your own.

I will give you these things. That's what the Lord is saying to us. But we have to be involved not only in his the fullness of his redemption. But the fullness of his redemptive work on the earth. We we can't be just casually Coming to the things of God.

We we have to be given to the work of God and that's always the meeting of human need. The reaching out to those that are lost to tell them that there is a God in heaven who loves them and to be an extended Hand of that kindness of God Cliff given to us through Jesus Christ.

Verse 58 says this is bread which came down from heaven not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. But he that eats of this bread Shall live forever. And these things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum.

Many therefore of his disciples when they heard this they said this is a hard saying. Who can hear it because you're talking about total surrender here. You're talking about total consumption. You're talking about a total giving of oneself.

You're talking about our lives not being our own anymore. But belonging to you being bought as it is with the price. You're talking about Another life goal another objective to take on the work or the objectives of God and let that flow through us in this world.

This is a hard saying. When Jesus knew in himself that the disciples murmured and it he said to them. Does this offend you I? You offended because I'm asking you to be my church on the earth. Are you offended because I'm telling you that you don't have the natural strength to get through this and Religion will not give you the strength that you need it has to be a living relationship with God.

That is manifested in love of God and a love of your fellow man here on this earth. Does this offend you? He said in verse 62 at what and if you shall see the Son of Man Ascend up to where he was before.

In other words. You might be offended by this, but will it make a difference if you see me raised from the dead? Will it make a difference if if you see that what I'm asking you to do and what I'm promising.

You is also given to me of the father that you will see with your eyes a dead man raised after three days. Will it make a difference? Whether you then understand that it it is not a casual encounter a relationship with Christ folks.

You know what makes this so profound is these people had Jesus Speaking to them now. I'm speaking on his behalf. I'm trusting that the Holy Spirit is animating the words of my heart and of the text today.

But they had the actual physical Son of God Who John says was in the beginning with God who created all things and was God. They had him actually standing in physical Form. They are supposed to be disciples of his.

They're supposed to be these are the sincere as it seems in this generation. Now he's asking them for a complete and total commitment to the cause of God that they're about to see unfolded through his life.

Now many people had come to him and there are some who could say well listen. I didn't come for this. I came because you know I was wounded in the past and I want healing and I came because I'm hungry and I see you can multiply bread.

I came because I thought we're gonna rule and reign. I thought we're gonna overthrow the the Roman Empire and That's the way it was told me at least by the person who told me that who you were. I thought I was gonna prosper and Now you're asking me for a full-hearted commitment in this time that we're living in now.

He said in verse 63 It's the spirit that quickens the flesh prophets nothing the words that I speak to you their spirit and their life. I'm telling you he said what I'm telling you is going to give you life.

It's going to carry you. It's going to sustain you it's going to keep you through the difficult days, but there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning Who they were that believed not and who should betray him and he said therefore I said unto you that no man can come to Be accepted were given unto him of my father and from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.

I Think it's going to look very much like that in our generation when the truth of Christ is Proclaimed and people say well, I I didn't. I didn't sign up for this. I didn't sign up to to be a declaration of God's life in the midst of a hostile environment and generation I.

I came to Christ because I thought it was going to better my life and now you're you're you're intimating at least that the path That you're on I'm going to be on. The way the world feels about you. They're going to feel about me the things they say about you.

They're going to say about me and suddenly it's not very attractive anymore. Suddenly it puts everything in its right perspective he's asking for a commitment that will actually take them to the cross and Yet many looked and they said no we didn't come for this.

Now the scripture doesn't say that they abandoned religion just that they abandoned Jesus Christ. These folks stayed in religion. They went back to the forms of religious as they knew. They they might even been more zealous than they were before but all of it was powerless.

They had just been confronted by the mouth of the Christ who created the universe and they went back. They went back to powerless singing powerless reading powerless praying. Because they had been confronted with what the the life of those who follow Christ is supposed to look like it's it's a total.

It's a total giving to the work of God. Whatever that work is for each individual believer. Paul says in the last days in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 and verse 5 one of the things that will Be symptomatic of the society of those days is that people will have a form of godliness.

But deny the power. There there. I think there'll be. I think there'll be the rise of religion everywhere. I Think there'll be a feel-good religion that rises. Folks if you thought you'd seen a ecumenism in the past you've not seen anything yet of.

What's going to rise that feel-good religion is going to become the religion of the day. You're okay. I'm okay. We're all okay we're all in this together and We're gonna save the earth somehow together.

But they close the door of their hearts to where the real life and power of God is. Close the door. They have a forum, but they really are a denial of What the gospel is all about of the power of God that?

Transforms of people from being selfish to selfless. From being self-focused to other focused. It's it's it's a transformed life. John said in 1st John 2 18 little children is the last time and as you have heard that Antichrist shall come.

Even now there are many antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time now John. The writer John the beloved John who leaned on Jesus rest at the supper at the last supper. Believed that they were in the last days.

And of course we are actually since the day of Pentecost. The Antichrist is a Substitutionary Christ who stands in opposition that's by definition to Jesus Christ really is now. We see this in the book of Exodus the people wanted to turn back to what they left behind and were delivered from.

But in order to do this, they had to create a substitutionary image of God. This is a God who would let them pursue their own desires. Seemingly with the same blessing and power in their minds that they had once known.

Folks, this is this the grave danger of our generation. Paul exhorted the Corinthian Church. He said be careful. Be careful be careful who you're following be careful what you're believing. Be careful what you're reading all folks.

I'm telling you as Paul said if you're not careful if somebody preaches another Christ. You might very well end up agreeing with it. If I can challenge you as the pastor of this church to do anything.

You don't have to believe a word. I say you get in this book and you read it for yourself. You study this thing. You study this book inside out if you're a new believer you start in the book of Matthew and you read through to the end and go back to Matthew and read to the end and Back to Matthew and read to the end.

Until this word is inside of you until you know, you can stand up and say I know who Jesus is. I know who I have believed. Paul could say that I know who I have believed. I know I don't care what anybody said.

I don't care how many people plead for me to stay in a certain place or to do a certain thing or to not be So extreme or to not go so far or to not follow so sincerely. Paul could say I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded That everything I've placed in his hand.

He's going to bring it right through to the end. I believe it with all my heart the end time. Strategy of Satan is clear. It's to divert those who are trying to find refuge in calamitous times by presenting a myriad of false Christ options along the way.

Many people are going to be trying to find refuge in the kingdom of God. Many who have sat Casually in the kingdom of God many have just hung on the exterior of the kingdom of God. Some who have been marginally sincere in the kingdom of God Are going to start rushing in looking as it is for the ark of safety and there'll be signs everywhere.

Jesus this way. Jesus is this way. Jesus is over here. Jesus is over there. You asked me then. How can I be sure that I'm following the real Jesus? Well, Jesus said these words in Matthew 24 26 if they say to you behold, he's over in the desert.

Don't go there. Behold, he's in the secret chambers. Don't believe it. You see the devil is not omnipresent. Omnipresent means everywhere all the time. Jesus is the only one who's omnipresent. You don't have to go anywhere to find him he is right where you are.

Hallelujah if they tell you he's in North Carolina, he's down in Florida. He's over in Canada. He's off in England save yourself the plane ticket. He's on the subway with you. Hallelujah. As you and I follow him in his work On earth he promises to be our strength and our guide.

Finding Christ Through Scripture and Works of Mercy

Let me read to you These words is not this the fast that I've chosen To loose the bands of wickedness to undo heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free and that you break every yoke. Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry you bring the poor that are cast out to your house?

When you see the naked you cover him and do you do not hide yourself from your own flesh? Then he says your light will break forth is the morning. Remember, he said as lightning comes from the east unto the west.

That's how the Son of Man comes sudden light. Your health shall spring forth speedily and your righteousness shall go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rearward. Then you will call and the Lord will answer.

You will cry and he'll say here I am if you take away the midst of you the yoke the putting forth of the finger and empty talk and if you draw out your soul to the hungry and Satisfy the afflicted soul then your light will rise in obscurity.

And even your darkness will be like the noonday and the Lord will guide you Continually unsatisfy your soul and drought and make fat your bones and you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not he is Everywhere he is everywhere and when we are found doing his work all we have to when we are found Doing his work.

All we have to do is say Jesus. Where are you? And you'll say I'm right here. I've never gone anywhere. I've been where I always am. I'm everywhere. You can't push me out of any room. Jesus can't be pushed out of any place.

No matter how dark or dank or hard or difficult your situation is you're when you're in your office. He is there when you're at home. He's there when you're on the subway. He's there when you're on the street.

He's there. He's everywhere you are. He's as close as the mention of his name. When you call out to him in times of fear and confusion He will respond with fierceness and power and scatter your enemies.

David said in Psalm 18 you remember David said darkness was all around. I was afraid on every side. Enemies seemed to be everywhere. I was in danger of being overwhelmed. And of course he's speaking about the fear of the moment.

Society seemed to be completely against the anointing of God that was upon his life. He's being pursued as he said like a partridge in the mountains a man who knew that the touch of God had been on his life.

But he said when I cried to you You heard me. Now he wasn't in a temple when he cried he wasn't in a church service. He was in a cave. And he said when I cried to you you heard me and he said not only did you hear me, but you stood up and you were wroth and Smoke went out of your nostrils.

Now that's a vivid picture. David saw this he's writing on the under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So this has to be an accurate portrayal when the devil starts messing around with a true child of God.

He rode on the wings of the wind and he said yeah, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He shot out lightnings and Discomforted them. Remember what Jesus said as the lightning comes out of the east and shines Even to the West so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be in our darkest times.

He will bring light. When our enemies seem to be triumphing over us, he will scatter them and then lastly. For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even to the West. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be he says I will come for you soon and suddenly.

Christ's Imminent Return and the Hope of the Resurrection

Soon and suddenly Christ is coming for his church folks. Don't give up now. Don't quit the race now don't look for another Jesus now. We've come too far by faith. You've heard so many messages about how difficult it's going to be.

And I don't know if we can any of us can adequately describe it. There'll even be a season according to Paul where they say peace in the Middle East and safety. Maybe this Upheaval that's happening will take a turn for the good.

Maybe it will look like peace is finally coming to the earth. But it says when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction Comes upon them sudden out of not seen not prepared for Prophet Isaiah says in one hour Everything changes everything changes in an hour.

The folks we're living in that kind of a time. But for you and I it's not an hour in which everything will change. It'll be in the moment in the twinkling of an eye. We'll be working in the field. I Had a dream about this one time.

Now that's only a dream. That's all it was but I was working in the field with my wife Teresa and another person we knew and and suddenly we were just out with well breaks and holes and we're out in a field and suddenly we started lifting from the earth and We were going up into the air and I remember this other lady who was a friend of ours was saying it's the rapture.

It's the rapture of the church. It's the rapture of the church. And I looked over at my wife her hands and feet were going in the air and she was shouting. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah and Me being ever the realist I looked down.

I said, I sure hope you're both, right? Because if you're not right We're in real trouble because at this point we're about three four hundred feet up in the air it's going to happen one day soon and suddenly soon and Suddenly the Lord Jesus is going to come with a trumpet and a shout the father's going to the father's going to lean over to the son and Time I guess as we know it is going to be very close to an end and he's going to say son go get your bride just like a Man who just has loved this girl for so long and has been betrothed and just can't wait and think on his case it's been over 2 ,000 years and he just Go get your bride the ones that are I've already died the ones that are still alive and The scripture says he comes with a shout Hallelujah to the Lamb of God like lightning from the Powerfully quickly, that's why you don't have to go to the desert.

You don't have to go to the clock don't believe anybody that says because he says no I'm when I come for you. Everybody's going to know it the whole world is going to know it when I come for you. It's going to be like lightning from the east to the west.

Nobody's going to miss this. Nobody's going to be left out. The dead are going to raise first Out of the ground and we who are alive at room and remain to be gathered together with them. And so shall we ever be with the Lord and the scripture says he comes with a shout I love that my church my bride.

Hallelujah. I think in that shout every name that's ever been given to him is named. It's it's a it's a compilation of your name and my name. Everyone has ever trusted everyone who's not given up everyone who's been partakers of the sacrifice that he made on the cross that we might have life everyone who's trusted him for life and strength and Breath and against every enemy and to be able to go through all opposition and to be a testimony of Christ.

No matter how dark it gets in the world. Everyone who's believed that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Everyone who's embraced in their heart that no weapon formed against me can prosper and every tongue that rises against me in judgment I shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. I have a righteousness. That's not my own. It was given to me of God. I have a covering. That's not my own. I have a future. That's not my own. I have a pathway.

That's not my own. I have a life. That's not my own it belongs to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah. I don't have a dowry as part of the bride of Jesus Christ you and I have nothing we can bring to him but what I do have is a heart that's filled with his word a heart that's longing for his coming.

A heart that's longing to See his work done in the earth. A heart that's longing to see prison doors open to see blinded eyes. Seeing again to see deafened ears hearing to see those that are wounded in heart healed by the power of God.

I have a heart. That's what I bring to him. And that's what he's coming for. And that's what the shout is all about. I'll come for you soon and suddenly. So when it gets hard when it gets difficult no matter what you're in today are going to go through tomorrow.

Remember that Jesus is coming for you. This life is only a vapor. James said it's just here for a moment. It passes away and a hundred million Thousand billion years from now you'll be so thankful you didn't give up the race you'll be so thankful that you didn't divert into some pit stop somewhere or Succumb to some voice offering a more comfortable religion.

You'll be thank God. You'll be thanking God for eternity that you stayed Running with those that have run this race for 2 ,000 years. You didn't give up and folks we're gonna have to encourage one another as we come around the corner because a lot of us are not professional runners and we're gonna Have to encourage one another.

We're just gonna have to you ever heard one time the geese when they're flying South or north whichever way they go depending on the time of the year. They they honk at each other to keep each other moving.

Did you know that? Well, that's according to a study I did they said that was one of the reasons did you saw that? Yeah, that's right. So we're gonna have to honk at each other. I'm not talking about when you get your car out on 51st and stuff.

But you were gonna have to just say come on now get up and keep running when somebody falls. We're gonna have to take him. We're gonna have to hold him folks. We're gonna get across this finish line. We're gonna do it together as the body of Jesus Christ.

Hallelujah. We're gonna do it together. We're gonna walk this walk together as the Church of Jesus Christ and we're not going to give up on the work of God. To see the read those that have no helper to see them.

The help of God through his church brought to them whatever form that's going to take. Revelation 3 is my last scripture, please if you'll turn there. Revelation 3 in the Church of Philadelphia. Beginning of verse 7.

Holding Fast to the Word and Finishing the Race

He says to the angel of the church in Philadelphia, right? These things says he that is Holy that is true. That he that has the key of David. He that opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens.

I Know your works. Behold, I've set before you an open door and no man can shut it. For you have a little strength. You've kept my word and you've not denied my name. I'll make them of the synagogue of Satan would say they're Jews and are not but do lie.

I'll make them to come and worship before your feet to know that I have loved you. He's talking to his church about all of those who have professed to know him, but it's not been in truth. The reason they'll come and worship because there'll be such an incredible strength.

It's not to worship you. He's not saying this to his church, but to worship before your feet. In other words to say tell me. Where have you found this strength? How did you get this strength to get through this time?

Because you've kept the word of my patience I'll keep you from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. Behold, I come quickly. Hold that fast which thou hast that no man.

Take thy crown. Let nobody take your crown because you're already on track for victory. You're already on track to be more than a conqueror. You're already on track to finish the race and to do it lawfully to do it rightfully.

To do it God's way and at the end of that race there's a crown Paul talked about it a crown of righteousness laid up for all of those that love God and Have gone on in the work of God and have not given up when opposition faced you.

An Altar Call for Those Who Are Losing Heart

And this is my altar call this morning. Hold fast. That no man take thy crown. I want to give an altar call for those who are in danger of giving up and. And you came here this morning and a despair was in your soul.

And you said God if I don't hear from you, I don't know if I can go on. Where am I going to find the strength to face tomorrow let alone the pastors of this church are talking about More difficult times coming.

Well, if there are any more difficult than what I'm facing today. Where will I find the strength to go on? How will I ever get through? How will I ever manage in the days to come this altar call is for you?

That you can simply come forward to the front of this sanctuary or between the screens in the annex and be encouraged. Simply be encouraged now if you've if you've Reached out and laid hold of things.

You shouldn't have if you are involved in practices. You shouldn't be. If you're looking for comfort in places that Only captivate you need to lay these things down and you need to trust God for the power to do that today lay aside the sin that so easily besets you and Let Jesus Christ give you the strength to be his church on the earth.

I Speak specifically to those who feel like giving up. I'm going to ask for honesty today. As you make that effort to get out of your seat and come forward. I believe that God is going to meet you. I Believe that as we worship he's going to give you strength.