Shalom chavarim!  (Hello friends…and peace!)  We’re talking about knowing the season in which we live.  Luke the apostle quoted Jesus in Luke 12:54-56:

And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?

Yesterday, we identified passages that clearly tell us we are living in the “in between.”  In other words, various prophetic passages tell us what has already taken place, and what is to take place in the future.  Thus, indicating that we are living in between fulfilled prophecy and soon-to-be-fulfilled prophecy!  Today, I want to look at another passage that helps us identify the season in which we live.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.
(2 Timothy 3:1-5)

What do we see in our world today, if not all the things listed above?  Certainly these sins have been around since the fall in the Garden, yet the Holy Spirit impressed upon Paul to write these things to Timothy in reference to the difficulties that will come in the last days.  I’m wondering if we are seeing an unprecedented “ramp up” in the frequency and severity of these sins, that warn us that the last days are upon us.  Moreover, we not only see the escalation of these things, but we see them becoming fully acceptable.

And, if that list was not enough to identify wickedness in the last days, the apostle Paul provided another list in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers,
will inherit the kingdom of God.

We are living in an age where these things are not only considered acceptable, but are becoming the norm in society both here in America and around the world.  We’re seeing moral decay accelerate at a pace we never dreamed possible.

Friends, Jesus has told us that we are to analyze the time.  If we do so according to the passages we studied yesterday, we know that we are living in an “in between” time.  Today’s passages describe the moral decay that will characterize the end of days.  Technically speaking, the “last days” began when Jesus ascended into heaven following His crucifixion.  However, the very next thing on the prophetic calendar is the rapture of the church, and we’re seeing the birth pangs leading up to that.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, He commands us over and over to be ready for His coming.  (Matthew 24:42-44, Matthew 25:1-12, Mark 13:35-37, Luke 21:34-36, 1 Thessalonians 5:6, and others.)  I believe He is saying, “Wake up…for the day is at hand!”  When He comes for us, we will have no excuse for not being ready.  After all, He has described the season, and has taught us how to recognize it.  Let’s be ready when our Blessed Hope appears to take us home!

Maranatha…Lord come quickly!