Three times in the Matthew 24, the Lord Jesus warns of false teachers and messiahs coming.
1. 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. (v. 4)
2. “… and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.” (v.11)
3. “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time.”
Even though the Lord gave warning, it still amazes me that so many followers of these false messiahs. Sad and tragic.
“So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” - 1 Cor. 10:12
I now come to that part of Christian morals where they differ most sharply from all other morals. There is one vice of which no man in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly any people, except Christians, ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. I have heard people admit that they are bad-tempered, or that they cannot keep their heads about girls or drink, or even that they are cowards. I do not think I have ever heard anyone who was not a Christian accuse himself of this vice. And at the same time I have very seldom met anyone, who was not a Christian, who showed the slightest mercy to it in others. There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.
The vice I am talking of is Pride or Self-Conceit: and the virtue opposite to it, in Christian morals, is called Humility. You may remember, when I was talking about sexual morality, I warned you that the centre of Christian morals did not lie there. Well, now, we have come to the centre. According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
This is an intriguing animation (with zoom-in and out capability), illustrating the spread of Walmart from one lowly store in 1962, to where it is today.
I wish there were one of these for the spread of the gospel across the entire globe(not just religious institutions, but God-ordained, truth telling, gospel-believing, transformed individuals). Imagine…
From the lowly beginnings in an upper room in the ancient city of Jerusalem, spreading to Judea and Samaria. Igniting flames across cities like Ephesus and Philippi. Spreading like wildfire across the Roman Empire despite best efforts to quench it. It appears the Adversary got a foothold with Constantine actually making it the official religion of the empire (yes, you read that right. Making Christianity the “official religion” might have been the worst thing that even happened to the faith).
Still, like the tender blade of grass that cannot be contained and eventually breaks through the concrete sidewalk, the truth survived the centuries of the Dark Ages… On and on – you get the idea. I think that would be an amazing animation!
It would cause us to wonder. We would marvel at the lowly means and the outwardly weak vessels the Lord used to carry the gospel light from here to there, against all odds. We would be encouraged. We would see the areas still sitting in darkness…
This video cannot but remind me of the love of God, our heavenly Father, towards us.
Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly,
but the proud he knows from afar. – Psalm 138:6
In a day and age where human weakness is scoffed at, where we do all we can to create impressions of strength and beauty, this video of father and son reminds me of the word of God: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). Clinging to these words, the apostle Paul goes on to declare that as a result: “For when I am weak, then I am strong”.
