Reflecting on All Ungoldyness, Wickedness and Unrighteousness of the Sons of Men

[background music] [Speaker 1] No religious fellowships can be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God-given godly life. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] We thank our God again for today. We appreciate Him for His love, for His mercies, for His goodness, for His grace. We thank Him for the privilege of coming together again to learn at His feet, to learn in His word. Today, the 25th of November, is the last Monday, and usually for our last Monday, we would be cutting out some time to pray as our usual practice. So as we start up today, we trust the Lord that it will be a time of refreshment, a time of blessing. It will be a time of encounter with the Lord in the name of Jesus Christ. Let us have a word of prayer as we start up this evening. [background music starts] [singing] We are gathering together unto Thee. We are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord. We are gathering together unto Thee. Unto the Lord. We are gathering together together unto Thee. Unto the Lord. Unto the Lord shall the gathering of His people be. We are gathering together unto Thee. Oh Jesus is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. Jesus is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. So I praise Him for He is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. So I praise Him for He is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. Oh Jesus is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. Jesus is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. So I praise Him for He is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. So I praise Him for He is Alpha, Alpha and Omega. [Speaker 2] Our Father, You are our Alpha and Omega. We thank You for all who You are. We thank You for all that You are. We bless Your holy name. We give You praise and glory. We give You honor and adoration. We thank You, Lord our God, for Your mercies. We thank You for Your goodness. Lord, unto You we gather again this evening. Lord, we pray that as we gather, we who are here physically, our brethren who are online, Lord our God, we pray that You will meet with us all in those areas, in those junctions of our lives where we really need You in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord, please instruct our hearts. Lord, please instruct our hearts. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Last week, we were able to come to the conclusion of Heat and Drought of Human Life. We were able to bring that topic to a conclusion last week. Today, Monday, which also happens to be the last Monday of the month, is a time for us to pray, to set time apart to pray about all that we have been learning, all that the Lord has been coming to us diversely in different ways through the instrumentality of God's word. So we are supposed also to be starting up another topic again today. As usual, what I will do this evening is to just briefly say a little thing about the topic, and then we would go into our time of prayer. Incidentally, because we have a time to send forth some of our brethren today, our plan this evening is that we will be wrapping up the fellowship by around 6 p.m. to make up about 30 minutes for the send-forth program for some of our key brethren who are rounding up. Of course, they will still be around us, but we know that anytime from now, either youth service or one or two things will take them forth since they are through with their program in the university. So we'll be sending them forth today. We trust the Lord that beyond their service here as they move on in life, the Lord will take them to higher places of assignment in the name of Jesus Christ. So we need to start up a new topic for today, and I will just introduce us to the topic, and then in our subsequent meeting, we will be going further and further into that topic. And that topic is Reflecting on All Ungodliness, Wickedness, and Unrighteousness of the Sons of Men. Reflecting on all ungodliness, wickedness, and unrighteousness of the sons of men. When you look around us today, ungodliness, wickedness, and unrighteousness fills the land. It is not just a Nigerian thing; it is a global phenomenon. Everywhere you enter today, every state you enter today, every country you enter today, in almost all every sphere of human life—at the family level, at the church level, at the level of the school, at the level of the economic institution, at the level of the political institution, at the level of all religious institutions—just mention every sphere of human life. Is it the military? Just mention every sphere of human life. What you find everywhere today are these three things. You find ungodliness, you find wickedness, and you find unrighteousness. It is something that has become these three things that sum up to evil doings among men. It is something that is everywhere today. It is everywhere. And it is practiced by children, by adolescents, by teenagers, by young adults, by old adults, by older adults, by gray-headed. You find it everywhere by male, by female, rich and poor, young and old, educated, uneducated, literate or illiterate, skilled and unskilled. Just mention it. The Bible says because iniquity will abound, the love of men will wax cold because iniquity will abound. Now, ungodliness, wickedness, and unrighteousness is not something that the Scripture did not give us a foreknowledge of. The word of God made it clear that as we move towards the end of the ages, wickedness is going to abound more and more and more and more. When you look at the book of Matthew 24:4-12, "And Jesus answered and said to them, 'Take heed that no one deceive you. For many will come in My name, saying, "I am the Christ," and will deceive many. You will hear of wars, rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end have not yet come. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places. All of these are the beginning of sorrow. Then they will deliver you up and kill you, and you will be hated of all nation for My name's sake. And then with many be offended and will betray one another and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will arise and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will wax cold.'" So do you see it? So the Scripture has made us to see that towards the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, lawlessness—another version calls that lawlessness, it says sin will be rampant everywhere. Sin will be rampant everywhere. NIV says, "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold." The Message says, "For many others, the overwhelming spread of evil, overwhelming spread of evil." KJV, "And because iniquity shall abound." Are you seeing that? Amplified says, "Because of the multiplied lawless and iniquity." So because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity, it will be multiplied. So don't be surprised as a believer when you see wickedness abounding everywhere. Don't be surprised as a Christian when you see iniquity abounding everywhere. The Scripture made it very, very clear that this is going to be the order of the day, that it will be rampant. It will be something that you will see everywhere. It will be something you should be expecting to see everywhere. When you look at another Scripture, 2 Timothy 3:12-13. 2 Timothy 3:12-13. Look at what the Bible says. Let me read verse 12 into 13 so that it will be clear. It says, "Yes, and all who desire to live a godly life, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus, will suffer persecution. But look at what follows, verse 13. What do you see? But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." NLT: "But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will go on deceiving others, and they themselves will be deceived." Look at it in NIV: "While evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse." Look at it in The Message: "Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith." Look at it in KJV: "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse." In Amplified: "But wicked men and impostors will go from bad to worse." What am I trying to make you see? What I'm trying to make you see is that don't be surprised. Don't be saying, "Ah, things are now so bad. Look at what this person did. Do you know what boy did this? Do you know what mother did that? Do you know what leader did this?" I just wonder, are they reading their Bible? Are they reading their Bible? That is the way things will definitely go. The word of God have spoken clearly about this. So don't be surprised when you see husband betraying wife, wives betraying husband, parents betraying children, children betraying parents, leaders betraying followers, followers betraying leaders. When you see all kinds of wickedness and evil, when you see it abounding and it looks like is there still any godly person again in this life? Don't be surprised. That is the way things will definitely go. And look, what we are seeing now is still nothing because if you look at the picture again that the Bible creates about this, the Bible gave us a picture in the book of Isaiah about the wickedness, unrighteousness, and the evil of men. That is where I'm going to stop today so that we can spend some time to pray. Isaiah chapter 60, verse 2. It says, "For behold, the darkness, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will rise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you." Are you seeing that? What the Bible is making us to see again is that darkness and gross darkness, where will they be? They will cover the earth. As we pray this evening, I want you to talk to the Lord this evening. He says, "But the glory of the Lord will rise upon you." Can you just pray wherever you are listening to me? That Lord, in the midst of this darkness, let Your glory rise upon me. He says, "For behold, the darkness will cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will rise over you, and His glory will be seen in you." Pray that, "Lord, rise over me. Lord, in the midst of the wickedness in this nation, the wickedness of men, the wickedness that is all around us, the wickedness we hear of, we see on the media happening around us, we witness every day as we travel, as we wake up, as we lie down. You just hear 30 people have been killed, 20 beheaded, this one poisoned that one, a husband beat the wife to death, a mother use the child for ritual, a son use the mother for ritual. As we keep hearing all of this evil here and there all around us, pastor impregnates choir leader, a pastor arrange and use a member for ritual, a this..." You just be hearing all kinds of things flying around us. Can you pray to the Lord? "Lord, rise upon me. Lord, rise upon me. Lord, rise upon me. Lord, rise upon me. Lord, rise upon me." Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Next, we want to ask the Lord, "Lord God Almighty, in the midst of all that is happening around us, Lord, grant me discernment." Lord, I will be discerning. I will not be foolish. I will not be stupid. Lord, I will be discerning. I'll be able to see between the lines by the power of Your Spirit. Lord, work in me. Lord, work through me. Thank You, Father. In Jesus' name we pray. In the course of the last three weeks, we have been talking about the heat and drought of human life. So we want to pray finally that, "God, the wickedness, the unrighteousness, the ungodliness in the land, I will not be swallowed by them. The affliction in the land, the wickedness in the land, the ungodliness in the land, the deception in the land, the evil in the land, the wickedness of men in the land, it will not swallow me up. I will triumph over them." Talk to the Lord about your altar. Everyday laziness, personal slothfulness. We should lay aside every weight that will not make us run effectively. Lord, open my eyes to weight around my personal altar so that my altar can be living, my altar can be alive, my altar can be burning. Enable me to hear God and be able to follow Him. Because that is the only way to survive the drought, the only way to survive the storm. Talk to the Lord. Thank You, Father. Thank You, Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Almighty God, we thank You for today. We thank You for the time of exhortation, the commencement of a new topic, the wickedness, ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men. We thank You for what You have made us to see. May we be found faithful. May we be among the little that will be faithful. Lord our God, we are praying, we are asking that even though it will be rampant, may we be found faithful. Faithfulness may not be rampant, godliness may not be rampant, righteousness may not be rampant, but Lord, that few that qualified for the rapture, we will be among the few in the name of Jesus. Lord, You will keep us going. We also pray, Lord, we will not be swallowed up by the wickedness of the land. Thank You, eternal Father. Blessed be Your holy name, our God. In Jesus' name we pray. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us now and forevermore. Amen. [Speaker 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission help. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class every Monday, 5 p.m.; Adolescents and singles club, every first Saturday of every month at 10 a.m.; Marriage forum, second Saturday of every month at 10 a.m.; Family life seminars, regular school outreaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location, Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community opposite Very Joy Filling Station along Ijede Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you. [music plays out]