End of the World 2012 (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on

the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, but we did not yield in subjection to them for

even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for

you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial.

Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and

glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry.

My name is Mike Abendroth, and I'm just sitting here in my studio, just laughing at myself, with

myself, about things that you can't know right now or need to know.

I'm a little stuffy today.

I don't know why.

I tape the shows about two weeks before you hear them.

It's pouring rain today, just pouring.

And so maybe that's why I'm a little stuffy.

I don't know.

I did say hello to my kids this morning and wife, but besides that, I really haven't spoken all day.

You know how that is?

You think, okay, it's three in the afternoon, and I haven't even talked at all today.

And for a preacher like me, a No Compromise Radio host, that is scary.

A couple things.

We want to make sure we announce, especially to those here in Massachusetts or in New England area,

we will be having a Bible conference at Bethlehem Bible Church, November 5th and 6th,

November 5th and 6th of this year.

That's Friday night and then Saturday morning with Rick Phillips.

Now, some of you know Rick Phillips because he was James Montgomery Boyce's associate

along with Riken, Philip Riken.

And now Richard Phillips is a pastor, senior pastor at Second Presbyterian Church

in Greenville.

And he is going to be here on Friday night for men only, November 5th, to talk about the Masculine

Mandate.

That is a book of his that you might want to pick up.

That is for men only.

Friday, November 5th, Masculine Mandate.

You can always go to our website and find more information at bbcchurch .org.

And then, in typical No Compromise style, November 6th, he will be

speaking to both men and women.

That's not the No Compromise style, but he's going to talk about three subjects, three sessions.

Evangelical attacks on the cross, lots of people attacking the atonement.

And so he's going to deal with that in session one.

Session two is theistic evolution, a biblical option with all the biological stuff going on

and other people saying you don't really need to be a six -day creationist.

Is that a biblical option?

The answer is going to be emphatically no.

And the third session is seeking both faithfulness and biblical balance in gender issues in the church.

So that kind of sounds like a No Compromise conference, doesn't it?

Two sessions on Friday night, November 5th, which would be biblical masculinity.

This is maybe part two of the Man Up Conference.

Then on Saturday, three sessions.

They're all in the morning.

Attacks on the cross, attacks on six -day creation, and attacks on men and

women complimenting one another.

And so that will be Rick Phillips.

He is an author.

I've interviewed him here on the show, and I really like Rick.

I like that he is just a faithful preacher, tells it like it is,

and he has a good pedigree of biblical theology.

He's written books, Jesus the Evangelist, What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace.

I think he's an army guy for a long time as well.

Well, anyway, that's No Compromise radio conference coming up this November, November 5th and 6th in Worcester,

just north of Worcester, bbchurch .org.

So we'll talk about that quite a bit over the next few days.

Today's topic at hand.

There is a 2012 prophecy going around, and some

have claimed that it's the Mayan calendar, that it's a Bible code, or it's a long

count, and it ends in 2012.

Others are claiming Nostradamus had a lost manuscript that said the world would end in

2012.

I find that interesting.

I think he wrote, yeah, let's see, who's in prophecy on Nostradamus?

When do we want the world to end?

2012.

I think he used to write one that said something about it, but we've lost it.

Well, today I'd like to discuss the issue of what do you do when it comes to end time theology?

Obviously, the prognosticators do not have a clue when the world will end.

No one knows, no simple human being, no created being knows when the future will end.

And we need to think properly.

Whenever I say we, then I have to change it to you.

You need to think properly so you don't get caught up in all the hubbub and all the fuzz and all the

spectacular nature that drives newspapers, that drives talk shows, that

drives most worldly media.

If the world is going to end in 2012, well, what would you do

anyway?

What's the response?

My question is not necessarily when will the world end?

The question that Christians really need to ask is what should we be doing in light

of the fact that the world will end?

Did you get that?

We know the world's going to end.

That is to say, we know Jesus is going to come back.

And 2 Peter 3 is very clear what Jesus is going to do to this earth.

And there will definitely be global warming on that day.

But we as Christians, you as a Christian, do not need to be caught up in some kind of gullible

state that you will just follow what the world says about the end of days.

Yes, there is a terminal nature to this earth.

There is the end, there is the telos, there is the that's it, it's over.

And all of us will stand before Christ.

The Christians will stand before Christ at the Bema Seat and will receive their awards for things they've

done in the body, whether good or worthless, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10.

And the unbelievers, as Revelation will say, Revelation says, that will stand before God at the great

white throne in judgment, and he will judge them for the deeds they've done in their body, and he will judge their sins

and cast them into the lake of fire.

So Jesus is coming back.

The world is going to end.

But what do Christians do?

How should you live?

Doesn't this almost hearken us back to 1999 with the whole

Y2K smoke and mirrors?

How do you get money from people?

You get money from people by A, playing to their greed, hence the lotto, and hence Benny Hinn.

It's the same difference.

One just wears a white suit like Catherine Coleman, and the other one doesn't.

They work at Cumberland Farms, and I don't know if they wear white suits as they dispense $8

packs of cigarettes and lotto tickets.

By the way, that's my ultimate pet peeve, is to see people walk into Cumberland Farms or any of these

other places.

It doesn't happen to be a honey farm.

I don't know what they're all called here.

I came from California where they were pretty much 7 -Elevens or Quick Stops or something like that, stop -and -goes.

And you see somebody walking in, and they've got, oh,

four packs of cools, extra -length

cools.

I don't even know what they're called.

You know, 100s.

They've got 16 monster drinks.

They've got two bags of Fritos.

And then they want $90 worth of scratchers.

And then they think they're gonna scratch those tickets while they're in line to see if they can cash in to get more, and I just

think the lottery, sadly, plays to people's greed.

And you are poor and stupid if you play the lottery.

It appeals to poor people and it appeals to stupid people because it's not rational.

It's not even Christian to say, you know, I have a desire to get rich, therefore I'll play it.

And you can't even justify it with, well, if I really win the big one, I'll tithe.

That's what people do, though.

They'll rationalize those things.

And so what does this have to do with anything?

I have no idea.

This is just my show, and I like to talk, and I feel underwater today.

So if you're a Christian, the world is going to end.

What do you then do?

Big charts and graphs, seven dispensations, and all that kind of malarkey?

No, it should change the way you live.

When you think of the second coming of Christ, when you think of biblical prophecy,

you must think of living a more holy life in

light of that truth.

The indicative is Jesus died on the cross and is raised from the dead and is coming back.

And in light of that, how should we live?

What should we do?

Why does it matter?

And so when you look at the word of God, this Y2K frenzied,

that's where I was, that's where I was going.

I was talking about Y2K and how you can get money from people by either greed or by fear.

And so extract money from others by playing to their greed or extract money from others by playing to their

fear.

And I know people that got all the Y2K stuff and there's people here at the church that wanted me

to let them do Y2K seminars and they'd say, you know, we can't even make a pencil anymore without

all the technology we have and all the computers are going to crash and it's going to be the end of the world as we know it.

And I feel fine, as Michael Stipe would say from REM.

And it was utter chaos.

So see, about every 10 years, this kind of stuff raises its ugly head again and we're going to have some kind of computer

glitch or we're going to have something going on where we're going to say the world is ending.

There's going to be a nuclear bomb eventually exploded, some dirty bomb and all the

prognosticators will have a proverbial field day.

So you Christian, don't be gullible.

You want to go see 2012?

Go see it.

I don't think I saw it because I didn't think I'd like it.

If you want to go see the show, fine, but don't be gullible when it comes to end

times fear.

If you're an unbeliever, you should be very afraid.

You should be catatonically afraid, paralyzed to the fact that you shouldn't be able to do

anything because one day you're going to have to pay for your sins eternally.

Can you imagine?

Millions upon millions upon millions upon millions upon millions upon millions of years.

And when all those are done, there's still more time.

I mean, it is incomprehensible to think about eternal damnation.

And so for the Christian, we know that the world will end.

So how should we live?

For the unbeliever, they should repent and believe and acknowledge Jesus Christ as the only savior, Lord and God,

who died a sinner's death and was raised from the dead.

For Christians, the Bible is a little bit different than what you might think.

So if you have a Bible, today I'm going to look at 1 Peter 4 and show you the

responses, the duties that Christians have that they

often forget.

You might forget in the middle of these end times days.

Now next year, 2011, right around October, September, November, somewhere

in there.

That's not in chronological order, of course.

Right around there, it's going to be fever pitch like 2012.

But this is kind of preventative maintenance.

And we have a great motive for righteous Christian living.

We have the most supreme motive for righteous Christian living.

And that is Jesus is coming back.

And you'll notice the response in 1 Peter 4 is not going to be lay back and let God.

It's not going to be build a silo and go to Montana.

It will not be quit your job.

It will not be be afraid, be idle, be restless, neglect your duties because

everything's ending.

No, it won't be like that at all.

Paul writes Pauline epistles.

Peter is writing 1 Peter 4.

And he says in verse 7, the end of all things is at hand, therefore.

And so he's setting the writers up to understand that in the midst of their persecution,

probably Neronian persecution, and how they would kill Christians and martyr them in all

kinds of horrible ways.

And the world is winding down between the ascension of Christ and

his second coming.

That's last days terminology.

That's the end of all things is at hand a kind of terminology.

Since we have Jesus's return as eminent, I -M -M -I

-N -E -N -T, or near, how should we live?

Romans 13, for now salvation is near to us than when we believed.

There's a short amount of time between now and the second coming, actually

shorter than yesterday, shorter than the day before.

Jesus said in Revelation 22, yes, I am coming quickly.

The response of John was then, amen, come Lord Jesus.

We are in a society today that does not think properly and we're influenced by the unbelievers.

So you Christian listening to WVNE or listening to No Compromise Radio online or

if you are in iTunes, you need to remember just as it happened in the days of Noah,

so it shall also be in the days of the Son of Man.

They were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were given in marriage until the day

that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.

It was the same as happened in the days of Lot.

They were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building.

By the way, all good things.

You could do those things with wrong motives, but by definition, those things aren't wrong.

And Jesus here in Luke 17 is saying they're busy, but on the day that Lot went out from

Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

And then Jesus ominously says, it will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man

is revealed.

So Peter says in 1 Peter 4, the end is coming and it is now closer than it was

yesterday.

How do you live?

Freak out, buy a bunch of distilled water, buy some pencils,

get a bunch of gas containers, load up on your ammo, build a bunker.

There's a lot of things Christians do, but Peter says something that's kind of interesting.

The first thing he says in verse seven is, be of sound judgment.

If you're listening today, Jesus is coming back.

You've got to keep your mind safe.

This is an imperative.

You need a cool head.

You need a well -balanced mind.

You get too excited and too much in a tizzy and too much in a huff, you're not going to think properly and

prudently and with reasonableness.

You need to be sensible.

There is something to be said for the end of the world that would lead you to be swept away by some kind of

passions, some kind of uncontrolled mind.

You need to be in your right mind.

The same word used in Mark 5, when Jesus observed the man who had been demon -possessed sitting down,

clothed and in his right mind.

The very man who had the legion and they became frightened.

So you need to have a mind that is biblical.

By the way, the watchword of the day is you need to have an open mind.

And if you were saying that to a Hebrew person, a person back in the Bible days, a

person who was a Hellenistic Jew, a Greek in those days who had been taught the

Old Testament scriptures, someone said, you need to have an open mind.

That would be a very stupid thing to say.

That'd be very dumb and ignorant.

That would be dunce -like block -headedness.

Why?

Open mind.

Open mind means you don't really care what goes in that thing and you don't care what leaves it.

It's just open.

It's like an open door.

Anything that can come in, fine.

Anything that can go out, fine.

And so the proper way to think, the proper way to analyze things, the correct

measure of a man or a woman is if they are closed -minded.

So you are very careful what comes in through that grid of biblical, through the

biblical grid into your mind.

And you say to yourself, I'm going to accept things that only jive with the

scriptures.

And I'm also going to make sure that I don't let the truths that I do have, the verities of God about

God, man, scriptures, death, hell, the Son of God, et cetera, I'm not going to

lose those.

They're not going to leave.

So be careful what goes in and be careful what goes out.

That's why in 1 Thessalonians 5, we are to examine everything carefully, not just false doctrine, but

these soothsayers, these signs of the times kind of people, these Gene

Dixons, as it were.

We need to have every thought taken captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10 says.

And so you need to have sound judgment.

That means you need to think properly with an eternal perspective.

Do you realize you're just a pilgrim, you're just passing through?

And so you can set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth.

You can say to yourself, do I remember that I'm going to be judged for my

actions and motives and things that I've done as a Christian?

And this is not for sins, it's not a judgment for sin, that happened at Calvary if you're a Christian, but I'm

going to receive recompense for what I've done, and I better get busy.

I better think properly so that I don't hold on to materialistic things like other

people do with white knuckles.

Just squeeze your hand real tightly now and you can see those tendons come up over the knuckles and you can

see how white your hands become.

You can just imagine people grabbing hold to having treasure on earth, materialistically

hoarding things.

That is not good judgment.

In light of the second coming, think prudently, think responsibly, think sensibly,

everything you have is going to be destroyed.

When Kim and I, my wife, we're down at Cape Cod and we went to some little curio shop and people have all

kinds of things to buy and neat little things, interesting little things.

You go to the Christmas tree store, for instance, and you think of, I mean, they've already got Christmas stuff out, Halloween and Christmas together.

It's kind of a scary nativity scene.

You could put some of the spider web stuff down

on the nativity because certainly there were spiders and other haunted things in the nativity of Christ

scene.

Weren't there?

It's kind of all just meshed together.

And I said to myself, and then I said to Kim out loud, you know, this is all going to burn.

Everything, it's all done.

It's going to be melted.

And the judgment of God's going to come and there's going to be a real heat wave, that's for sure.

And it's going to be destroyed and prepared for the new Jerusalem.

And so I say to myself, Jesus is coming back.

Should be a time for me and for all the listeners on WV &E and elsewhere for you

to say, I have to have the right priorities.

I have to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to me.

You, if you're listening today and you're a Christian, you live in a world and a society that says you can have it

all.

And you need a full life, a satisfying life, a best life.

But that's not what matters.

What matters is faithfulness, godliness, righteousness, a response

to God's great work in your life that says, I'm going to walk by faith and not

by sight.

I'm not going to let the shortness of this time on earth demotivate me.

I'm going to let it motivate me so I'm mentally ready.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.

We're asking this question.

In light of all the Mayan prophecies and everything else, the world's going to end in 2012.

How should you, the Christian, respond?

And first Peter chapter four says you should respond with sound judgment, number one.

Number two, we'll probably have to end here.

You should respond with sober spirit.

The end of all things is at hand, therefore be of sober spirit.

In other words, sober originally just meant don't drink.

You need to have your mind working on all cylinders.

I don't drink alcohol anymore, even though I have the liberty to drink it.

That's not the issue for the Christian.

You can't drink alcohol.

I just don't drink anymore because I've overdone pretty much everything in my life with drugs and alcohol and it's wrecked

enough of my life so I've just decided not to drink it.

Also saves me money and calories as well, but that's another story.

When you drink, you have fuzzy thinking.

You drink too much and you are affected in your mind.

I remember when I first would think about having kids and Luke one time was choking on something, we're

holding him upside down, hitting him on the back of his shoulders, driving down to the, didn't want to wait for the ambulance, driving

down to the fire department to try to get that thing out of his mouth, out of his throat.

He's choking on it and I thought, what if I'd had a couple of beers?

Do you think as quickly?

What do you do?

And so here, Peter says, have a sober spirit.

And this isn't necessarily real intoxication that you should walk away from, although that

would be good.

But here he's talking spiritual thinking, spiritual clear headedness.

Don't be intoxicated by some kind of worldly fuzzy thinking.

Be in full possession of your faculties.

Think clearly, this is related to the first one, about the end times and how you should

live.

Mental alertness.

Seize.

Okay.

Yes, that's exactly what's coming down the pike.

And it says for the spirit of, be of sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

How are you gonna pray unless you think about these things properly?

Prayer takes effort and thinking.

That's why it's a bunch of malarkey just to go in your closet and start saying, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.

You could be having no sober spirit and pray that way.

The shortness of the time on earth that you have should motivate you to serve and live for Christ

Jesus.

That's what we've talked about today on No Compromise Radio Ministry.

If you wanna write me, you can write me at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

Info at nocompromiseradio .com.

We'd love to have your emails.

Don't forget we have the podcasts on iTunes.

Type in No Compromise Radio.

Or if you just go to nocompromiseradio .com, you can pull up any of the podcasts.

I wanna say 280, 290 shows, something like that.

Rick Phillips for the Bible Conference here in Worcester.

You don't wanna miss that.

And I'll probably try to interview him again on No Compromise Radio in light of that.

If you have questions about salvation, you need a Bible, you need some counseling, you

can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com.

We are here to serve.

God bless you.

And remember, Jesus Christ is coming back soon.

How should you live?

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West

Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of

God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six.

We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone

at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its

staff or management.