In the Last Days — Pastor Romaine

This tape is entitled, In the Last Days. It is given by Pastor Romaine from Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa.

Perilous Times and Christian Conduct

Turn over to 2 Timothy chapter 3, please. 2 Timothy 3. In the first verses of chapter 3 of 2 Timothy, he starts out by saying, This know also, then the last days perilous time shall come. He said, This know also.

That hooks into the conversation that was just before that. It was talking about your conduct and my conduct. That we're not to argue and strive. You don't argue over scripture. You're to keep your peace.

It says in verse 25, In meekness, in meekness. You can't be meek and just be yelling at the top of your voice. In meekness, instruct those who impose themselves. Those who are arguing against themselves.

So there's a guy in here the other day. He was a dude. He came in. He walked through the door. Husband, wife made the appointment. I was talking to her. She introduced me to him. He shook hands with me.

It was kind of like shaking hands with an iceberg. He was glaring. He didn't like anybody. But you see, the thing is, I don't know what kind of day he's got. I really don't know. It can be a terrible day.

Then he's got to face this terrible situation. And some dumb stranger wants to butt in. The dumb stranger is me. So right off the bat, he doesn't like me. War is declared. Silently, without a word being said.

I have to be awful. I really do at the outset. I don't have to be careful later on. At the outset, you don't want to add fuel to the fire and really convince the guy that he was right coming in. So I have to be awful careful I don't laugh.

Because when I meet guys, not so much ladies. I don't know. Maybe ladies do it. I just don't notice them if they do. I notice guys do. They size you up. Small little punk. Older, not much hair. And you can, you know, because I'm in the union.

I'm a card carrying member of that union. It's called clunky men. And all men are in the union, whether you want to be in there or not. Some try to be suave and smooth and sophisticated and cool. Smell good, look good, dress right.

But you know, if you put a handful of mud in an ermine bag, the ermine bag doesn't change the handful of mud. It's just, that's basic. That's fundamental. And he was ready to go. Now this, because it has to do with this, believe it or not.

And it has to do with what we're going to read in a minute. It's just so apropos to the whole thing. Now this is what he said. He sat down and my opening line is, may I help you? Because I figure somebody should start the conversation.

Because when I first started this thing, I sat down, people would just sit and stare at you. Did you ever pass a field where there's a bunch of cows in it? If you stand, if you stop and go over to the cow and say, hi, bossy, hi, cow, they just stare at you.

Well, that's what happened when I first started this thing. So I figured, well, the only thing I can think to do is may I help you? And so he turns and talks to her, and I don't exist. I really don't exist at that time.

And he said, you made this appointment. It was your idea, and I agreed to come along because we got a lot of troubles that are your fault. Do any of you ladies know, do you recognize that? Probably not.

You probably don't. And it's your fault. Now this is the other part. Therefore, I'm just going to sit here, and you do all the talk, and I'll do all the listening. She says, OK, I'm out of the house right now.

I'm not living at home. And the problem is with our boys. And he jumped right in. He was going to sit there, and he wasn't going to say anything. She didn't get, what, 25 words out of her mouth? And there he is, he's got both oars in his mouth and just trying to go like mad.

And I thought, well, I recognize this gentleman. He's made of the same stuff that I am. It's called jerkiness. And I thought, he and I will have just a fine time. And we did. I said to him, I said, in order to lay a groundwork, I said, we'll start, you and I'll start.

Tell me who Jesus Christ is. I don't have to answer that question. I'm going, I said, no, you don't. I said, but the reason I ask it is so that we can have a common ground. He said, I want you to know something else.

He said, I had a violent argument with another man who was a friend over Jesus Christ when I was younger. And because of that argument, he died. I'm going, I recognize you. Of course, I got this nice straight face.

I said, no, he didn't die because of the argument. I said, because God said the breath of everybody's body is given into his hand. I said, therefore, the man quits this life when God's ready. I said, you've used that for a dodge for years, so you don't have to talk about Jesus Christ, haven't you?

Before we're all done, the Holy Spirit softened the man, stuck his hand out, and said, I'm sorry for my part. I started off wrong. He said, you're right. I am responsible for my own actions. I don't act very good in my own home.

I'm not a good example to my wife or the boys. Of course, I brought all that about. Or God's Holy Spirit did the whole thing. He agreed to take some scriptures and read it and write it out and tell his wife, this is what God says I'm supposed to be as a husband.

She took the scriptures and agreed to write them out in her own words as to what God said she's supposed to be as a wife. And then they're going to sit down and share it. And of course, they get down to the other things.

When all of this stuff begins to settle, they said, now, she said, should I go back home? I said, that's up to you. Because see, you can get trapped in that, and you can start playing God in people's lives.

And I just see things like that. And I don't choose to call those things small or infinitesimal, but I see a lot of little items and instances where God is bringing people into the kingdom of God. I see an awful lot of it.

I see God gathering things together. I never hoped to see that. I really never hoped to see that. But I see all of these things that are happening all over the world internationally. I see them happening nationally.

Family Breakdown as a Sign of the Last Days

I see such things as families falling apart. Why would that be a sign of the last times? Because if the family's gone, everything else goes with it. God ordained the family as the base strength for a people.

And if the family unit goes, everything else goes. The way the family unit goes is you have a lot of single parents trying to raise children. One or both have vacated all of their responsibility and their initial conclusions that they were going to love each other.

They were going to be married till death do us part. Maybe not in the name of Jesus Christ, but they made that contract. Divorce rate is out of sight. The number of people that are cohabitating, that's a fancy word for living together and having sex together and not being married, is way, way up, way up.

It's astronomical. What conclusion do I draw from that? That tells me that people do not want to make a commitment to each other. It takes a lot to make a commitment to each other. It takes a lot of hard work.

But anything that takes a lot of hard work, if you're willing to work at it, there's an awful lot of rewards to it. He says in the Bible, here as he's talking about our conduct, we're to help other people and to help recover them out of the snare of Satan.

Why? Because in the last days, there's going to be perilous times. Sometimes I talk to folks about the end times, and I tell them some of the things that are going on to show the signs of the times. They said, oh, that's been going on forever.

I said, yes, but not in the multitude that is happening now. There's no such thing any longer of community barriers. Things are just so backwards. Chuck was saying Sunday morning that it is a felony, or it's a crime at least.

I don't know if it's a felony, but it's a crime for a medical man not to report gonorrhea or syphilis. That's a crime. It's also a crime if he reports AIDS. You go, wait, wait. You go back up and say, say that again.

That to me is another sign of just the twistings of morals. Just basic morals. You weren't even close to biblical morals, just basic right and wrong that every human being knows. And so you begin to look at the paper.

You begin to see what government does. You begin to see cheating in high places. You begin to see indifference and coldness to right and wrong and to family among folks like you and I. A man now stands, and this is not a singular instance, just one that I recalled of mine just recently in the last few days.

A man stands up and reports a drug dealer that lives next door to him. This actually happened. He reported a drug dealer next door. So they staked it out, and they found out he was a pretty good-sized drug dealer.

I don't know what good size is. I think if you sell any drugs, you're a Satan. And for his trouble, his house was all shot up. It just so happened everybody was in the back end of the house because his TV that's in the front of the house didn't work.

So all of the family was in the back in the house, and nobody got hurt, but his house was riddled with bullets. He's lived there for 21 years. Now he's going to have to leave the state standing up for something.

They made a major case out of a guy that blew the whistle on a whole section or a whole department of the government in Washington, DC. He talked about all the cheating and lying and stealing that was going on.

He was written up in Reader's Digest, and I don't know what else, because all he did was stand up and say, I'm going to be counted. That's wrong, and here's the proof. Then you and I see it, and we automatically, if we don't say it, we feel it or think it.

I don't want to be involved. I don't want to stand for anything. I don't want to be persecuted. You tell people about Jesus Christ, you're going to get persecuted. You are. You are. Who said so? Jesus Christ said so.

Well, maybe there's just a good way, maybe there's a good way to tell them, you know, where you can kind of smooth it over, no? Well, I'll look like a Christian, but I won't say anything. The minute you say that you're a Christian, they're going to watch you, and they have a right to.

You should expect that they expect more of you because you named the name Jesus Christ. And this is in last days. One of the most shocking things that I came to rest upon in my time at Calvary Chapel, one of the most shocking things for me personally, just as a guy, is to suddenly realize that it's within the scope of possibility that I could see Jesus Christ come in my lifetime.

That's possible now because of all of the events and the things that are taking place. I never thought of that before. I figured, well, God will come, I'm out of here, you know, whenever, wherever, however, but I'll just go home and be with the Lord and the rest of you suckers have got to stay here and just pay bills and scoff up smog and pretend like you're having a good time while I'm home laughing like mad.

But now... And that triggered an awful lot of things in my heart and thinking. I'm going, well, if the Lord comes, what if I was doing that? If the Lord comes... I never once thought about the Lord just coming and taking just me, bang!

The Lord coming for the church and how should I be acting? If the Lord comes and takes just me, how should I be acting? What should I be? Who am I supposed to be? What things are accursed to me where God is concerned?

What will separate me between... What will separate between me and God? What will separate between you and God? He said in the last days. What does that tell you? There's going to be an end of the days.

There's going to be some days that are last. There's going to be a last day. I really would like to get a hold of the guy or the gal that's the last one to accept Christ before Jesus comes. And just throttle them and jump on their chest and on their head, jump up and down, and say, you will, you will, you will, you will.

I had to change my thinking back over to the fact that maybe I ought to consider that God could take me any time, so therefore, what am I supposed to be? What am I supposed to be doing? There are last days.

And my wife has taught Jesus Christ's second coming for years, years. And I'm out there teaching, if you continue to sin, you're going to hell. If you continue to sin, you're going to hell. And she's talking about the second coming of Jesus Christ and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

She was teaching that to high schoolers and to college age folks. I had junior highs in the church. If you don't sin, if you sin, you go to hell. Well, they already knew that, so they want to know if there's any other option.

I didn't have one. And she's out there teaching the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The woman is weird. The woman is weird. And slowly but surely, God in His own beautiful way in my life, and in yours, in yours, there's no difference between the two of us before God very quietly, very imperceptibly.

Oh, He did a couple of quick yanks and tugs here and there to get me down the road a little faster. You know, like pick me up by the seat of the pants and the nap of the neck and throw me out of the church because He had some things to get done.

At the time, I thought it was terrible. Now, I think it's fine. Gee, I got the best end of the stick. In the last days, perilous times shall come. Things are going to happen all around you. As I was thinking about this last night, again this morning, there is absolutely no scriptural reason to believe that God is going to exempt America from a lot of lousy stuff before He comes.

We are not great. We are not a Christian nation. That's a joke. We are not a Christian nation. And we never have been a Christian nation. We have said that, but it's not true. We are not a Christ-like nation from the top down.

And I'd like to remind you folks that you are in the minority and you'll always be in the minority, and God said so. He says, Why is the path of Egypt a destruction? Many there be that go in thereat, and narrow is the path that leads to everlasting life, and few there will be who find it.

So you're among the few. You better pay attention. You're chosen. You're selected. You're elected. You're predestinated. Pay attention. And for me, pay attention. I was up at West Covina, Calvary Chapel, West Covina last night.

I was sharing with them about God's Word falling on stony ground and among cactus and on shallow ground. When I got all done and I left there, and I started because it's a nice drive coming back, you know, about around 9 o 'clock.

It's a nice drive coming back from there. It's about an hour back to my house. And it just settled in on me that God's Word that I shared with them applies to me. This is my Word. You better do something about it.

God speaking to my heart and all the things I shared with them, God saying to me quietly in that car as I'm driving along, More is required of you because you know more. Do something about it. Do something about it.

Before the evening was over, He gave me two beautiful opportunities to witness to two people that are very dear to me. That was before the evening was over with. He said, You want to tell me the miracle?

I did it in love. And my wife, when I got done, she was sitting there listening. She says, You handled that very well. I said, Yes. Because there's not many of those instances, you know, so you got to get puffed up.

The Urgency of the Last Days and Personal Obedience

The urgency is from the last times because God said so. I didn't say so. It is because these things have been going on for a long time because if they've been going on for a long time, which is true, then how come we haven't wised up as a people in this world if they've been going on so long?

Because we don't care about God. Oh, you can't do anything about prostitution. It's been around since the beginning of time. Well, I thought we were a smarter people now. I thought we came to a lot of knowledge.

You can't do anything about prostitution and the common cold. And yet we seem to think that we're really great and spend millions upon millions and billions of dollars to get a piece of metal up into orbit because we've got to beat the Russians.

And you can't find places. You can't find a piece of ground or won't take time out to find a piece of ground to build a building to get the people off the street called homeless. We're something, you know.

You don't want to hear it. You really don't. Look at verse 2. For men shall be kind one to another. Men will be open and try to help one another. And ladies, who runs the government? You? Well, men do.

Men will be lovers of their own selves. You ever heard the phrase, now generation? You ever heard the me generation? Get what I want now? You ever heard that before? Did you hear it had been given out with pride and a whole philosophy and way of living?

Oh, people have always been selfies. Now it's promoted. It's advertised. Go for the gold. Go for the gusto. Get all you can get while you're going through here. That's a beer advertisement. It's still an advertisement.

Get mine. Who cares about anybody else? That's all through the sports world. There's something I could really get started on. That really bothers me because I've enjoyed sports for years. Just all of the zing is being taken out of it.

Sports, so far as I'm concerned, is in such mediocrity that it will never recover. When I say there are no professional men out there, there are some standouts. I saw a lady last night on the Olympics win the gold medal and get on her knees and pray.

She said, God gave me the ability to do this. I'm going, all right, national television, sock it to them, Lord. I was just jumping up and down. I would have thought the same thing of her if she had not even placed.

Of course, if she hadn't placed, the camera wouldn't have been on her. Because we go for only winners, right? Only the lovely people, only the sparkling people. Everybody else is second class. That's so sick.

God never made anybody second class. But because in the last days there will be lovers of themselves. Where's mine? You haven't given me my due. God specifically says in this world, you better be careful because if I come back and find you doing these things, you're left out.

I'll leave you. Yeah, but Lord. And he slams the door. Remember the 10 version? Slams the door. Because he means what he says. Means what he says to me. He means what he says to me. He wants me up and on, on my feet and paying attention to what he has said that I am accountable for.

That I'm to respond to that. And you are too. You can't lope along. There's no such thing as getting by as a Christian. There's no such thing as mediocrity. Not with Jesus Christ. He said, if you're lukewarm, I'll spit you out of my mouth.

You're detestable to God if all you do is just kind of cruise. God will take you fighting him tooth and toenail and love every minute of it because you suddenly know that you're fighting God. I love to talk to people that are fighting God.

I'm angry at God. I hate God. Good. And they go, what? I'm going, good. That's great. Fight God. Bring everything you got in a thimble and fight God. Give it to him. He isn't fair. Tell him about it. Don't tell other Christians that God's not fair.

Go tell God you're not fair. Shake your finger in the face of God. Defy him and jump up and down and push and pull. And then when you get all done, you're flat on your face, you can't go any further. Say, oh, help, Lord, mercy.

And his love doesn't change. There you are, this infinitesimal speck in the whole realm of time jumping up and down in the face of a creator and a holy God, and he can handle it? I'm just so tired, Lord.

I've fought you and fought you. Now I quit. What do you want? What do you want? Help yourself. What do you want? Jump in. Whatever you want from me, hey, let's go for it. Like that 19-year-old young lady that I had the letter shared with you a while back.

You bought my life. I belong to you. And for a year, she said, what do you want? Show me. For a year. How come a year? Who knows? She was willing. She was open. But she was insistent. All of a sudden, she gets this world map and she lays it out and she says, if you want me to stay where I'm at, I'll stay there.

If you want me to go anywhere in this world, I'll do that. I'll go anywhere you want me to. And Chile come up. She could speak just a few words of Spanish, not much. She says, you want me to go to Chile?

And it got more and more and more and more. So she started writing letters. And they said, sure, we can use you down here. She says, all right, Lord, you're telling me about Chile, apparently, as best I can determine.

She didn't pick out Chile. She had the whole map. Nineteen-year-old and a young lady and scared to death. Same thing is true for you. You don't have to go to Chile. You don't have to lay out the world map, but you can say to God, all right, I'm yours.

What do you want? Let's go for it. That's certainly not a lover of yourself because He'll put you to work and blow your mind and work you to death. And you'll see lives changed all around you. Well, go try it.

People will think you're high on drugs. You'll be laughing all the time. You'll be so tired you'll have a headache. You want to lay down. God says, no, no, you got on this thing late. Let's get it going.

The upshot of that was that young lady says, okay, I'll go, but you're going to have to furnish all the stuff. Here come the money for a plane ticket. Here come the whole works and the whole works and the whole.

You, good gravy, if you haven't seen it, wake up. And it was an island off of the coast. I couldn't even pronounce the name of the thing. But there was an island off the coast. And she knew she should go to that island.

And she gets down there and she's looking for a church or place to fellowship. She's scared to death. She can't find a place. She goes to talk to this one guy. He said, well, sure, we could use you here to teach the gospel.

You betcha. And maybe you could help out with the children. And that's one of the things that's on her heart was help out with children. But she just didn't have a piece of that guy. She says, no, I think I'm supposed to be at an island out here that's just off the coast.

But I don't know how to get there or where it is. I'm supposed to be on an island? I don't know where it is. And there was another pastor standing there saying, well, I'm from that island. And we need you bad to help with the children and to teach them the gospel.

I'll get you over that island. We'll get you a house. We'll get you all set up. But that was luck. You know, God just picked her up out of the United States and dropped her in the middle of South America and let her swim around a little bit.

He ordered every step. And along the way when she was down there, while she was looking for the church and everything else, she was lonely. Figured she was out of God's will and maybe ought to go back home.

None of this makes any sense. She said, but I knew better than that. I was just frightened and I was by myself and I didn't know anybody. She was in love with God, not in love with herself. For men shall be lovers of their own selves.

There will be covetousness. That's part of loving yourself. Bolsters about yourself and who you think you are. Self-proud, that's part of loving yourself. Blasphemers, talking against those things that are holy.

Making fun of those things that are holy. Disobedient to parents. Oh, my. And not only disobedience to parents, they're starting to shoot them now. The children are starting to shoot the parents. You aren't worth the powder to blow you up if you're a parent and you don't require your children obedience.

You don't love them if you don't require obedience. I don't care whether they're 6 or 16. And I'll turn that around a little bit too. And if you're a son or daughter, you aren't worth your salt if you are not respectful of your parents.

I don't care what they did to you or what they are or what you think of them. God says you are to respect them. If you don't respect them, then you better ask God to change your heart as a son or daughter.

I don't care how old you are, how old your mother or father is, or they're senile or they hate you or they're bitter or they're dried up. What their condition is does not excuse you. You are to be respectful of your parents and your children are to be respectful of you.

And if you let them get away with anything, listen at your role. Do I believe that? You bet your sweet life I do. With every fiber of my being, I believe that. The only way you're going to get God's blessings, you say you love your child and you let him run around and squalor.

By squalor, I mean to do just as He pleases. And anything will get me quicker. When I'm out shopping for groceries, it's for a guy to shove his cart in front of mine when I'm in line, or for children to come tearing around the corner screaming like mad and run into me.

I like to back my cart up and leave wheel marks up his back. Then when I recover from that, I'm wondering where the parents are because if it isn't the child, it's the parents. Every once in a while I'm lucky enough that the parent will be right there and all.

Children should be chained up and not seen. Now you know the number of people that are going to hear that on tape. Disobedient to parents, unthankful. Suicide among teenagers is up. Unthankful, unthankful, ungrateful that they've got health and a home.

They've got a clean place to live. Pick them up by batches and fly them out to Bangladesh, parts of India. Let them roam around there with the children for a while and see what those children have got.

Let them live there for a while. Let them eek out a living. We are the most blessed people above all in this nation with material stuff. And we're unthankful. Nobody points out to the children, you've got someone that cares about you.

Somebody puts a roof over your head. Maybe they're lousy. Maybe your parent is lousy. Okay, okay, okay. Maybe their parent is lousy. But you're still blessed. And you ought to look around. I heard a guy who's supposed to be quite an author.

He's written several books on various subjects now. He's writing about somewhat the slanders on the family. He's a secular writer, whether he's a Christian or not. He says, our children don't have that much to look forward to.

He says, because the people have forgotten to tell the young people about the past. They have plenty to look forward to. Yes, I think they need to know about the past. I really believe that. You want to know whether our children have got very much?

Go to the parking lots of the junior high and high school schools. See how many cars you see. See what kind of cars you see. Back in the ancient days when we'd come out of caves when I was in high school.

See how many cars there were. The teachers, there was a few of these other rich brats that had cars. But what, 10, 15, or 20? If you can't get your parents a car, get the keys to the car and some gas money.

Your parents are terrible. I want my children to have better than I do. Fine, fine, great, noble. But go the extra step and at least teach them what it is to do without. Pedal a bicycle for a while. Walk before you learn to ride.

Stop handing everything to them free. And then what they do is they spin on it and smear at it. Do you think you do them any good by doing that? They have no values. They have no values because they're not taught values.

You don't throw food away. You pick up after yourself. You clean your room. And you not only clean your room, but you get out here and you help with the rest of this house that you also help dirty. You know what happens if you don't do that?

Then the guy comes in and sees me after he has had that kind of training. And he doesn't pick up a sponge or a tea towel or dry dishes. And he wouldn't even know the right end of a vacuum cleaner if he didn't hear the noise of the motor on one end.

I don't know what I'm talking about. Oh, they used to allow me to go to couples retreats in Sherwin. They don't allow me to do that anymore. I'd say, okay, all you ladies, after the lunch hour or the breakfast hour or the dinner hour, all you ladies out of here.

You're out of the dining room. All you guys, bust the tables, take the dirty dishes up, wipe off. You like that, huh? You and me, I do. I just, I can't wait for it. Masochists cause trouble and pain and anguish.

Wipe off all the tables. Dry them all off. Now get this. This is what I say now. I used to. They won't let me do it anymore. And it's just as well. They need to hear it from somebody else anyway. I'd say, now there's two buckets of water.

One is clear water and one is soapy water. The soapy water has bubbles in it. I'm talking to the men. And why do I have two? Oh, you poor ladies. I know you're poor ladies because I'm married to one. Wipe this table off.

Up there are spare napkins, knives, forks and spoons and glasses. Why don't you set the place up with the salt and pepper and the sugar and get it all ready for the next meal. If there's 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 men there, it is a zoo.

And the ladies, bless you ladies' hearts. The ladies, quite a few of them are standing up there. If you've been in the dining room down there or up there at the conference center, they'll be standing up there on that upper level, you know, where that railing is, and then this lower level where you walk down into the tables and so forth.

I call it the pit of the arena. Especially if there's children there because they throw food in every direction. But these are just couples. And those ladies just can't wait to get down there because they could do it.

Bang, bang, bang, bang. And it would all be done and they would all walk out. And I'm down there with that microphone. Out, out, you, you lady, out. Yeah, but he, let me get him the silverware. Out, out.

And here's a table eight feet long with about four trays of knives, forks and spoons. And right behind them are two tons of glasses stacked up. And right next to them is a whole bunch of napkins. And that's on an upper level just right there where you go up to get your food.

It's all set there. The people have set it out for them. So here come the people out of the kitchen. We'll help. I said, out, out. Men only. One guy says, why are you doing this to us? And another lady, she's standing there watching her husband smile.

I said, what are you smiling at? She says, I've never seen him do that before and we've been married 23 years. I didn't know he knew how. And you know what he did? One guy said, this is woman's work. I said, you're not very good at it, are you?

I said, might as well get potty trained right now. You're laughing. But it is the wildest thing in the world to watch. And one guy or two guys will say, okay, my table's clear. What do I do next? I said, knives, forks.

Now, that's what I say. I'm standing right there looking at them in the eye. I said, knives, forks, spoons. And either cups or glasses, whatever's supposed to go next. And napkins, one at each place. Oh, where are they?

I says, take one step forward. And they take one step forward, bumping the table. I said, well, I took a step forward. Where are they? I said, you just bumped the table. The table's eight feet long. Oh, you mean this?

I said, yeah, right. I said, none of it has wings. It won't fly. Oh, don't be smart. I can see why. I know what I do. Why am I going through all this? Because I believe that the finest example that can be set in the home is surely by the mother, but also by the father.

I really believe that with all I've got. One young man said, I used to wait in the morning to hear my mother and father know that they were up. He said, I'd make all kinds of alibis to go into their bedroom, and I liked to tiptoe in there because I knew as soon as they got up, they'd put their arms around each other and prayed, and I just loved to see my mother and father praying.