EB: 20 Obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment

Chapter 20

Obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment

Deuteronomy 30

Contents

A) Obey because Christ commanded it

B) Obey to love & protect your children

C) Obey to love God more than anything or anyone else

D) Obey because you will be able

Primary Points

• Leaving America will probably be the hardest thing you have ever done for God.
• If you are a Christian, then the most important question for you is this: will you sin against your Father in Heaven?
• When you doubt Christ’s Last Great Commandment, it will help you to read again Revelation 17:16 and 18:4 and be reminded of what you believe God is saying.
• There is something worse than death. It’s disobedience.
• It is not the perceived probability that the conclusions of Endtime Babylon are correct that matters the most. Rather, it is the value of the people we love and want to protect that matters even more.
• The most important reason to obey God is not to avoid unnecessary pain and disaster, but to LOVE God no matter what happens.
• Let’s be honest about the real reason you may not obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment: Idolatry.
• It is probably not the “stuff” of your life that will make this decision so difficult. It is the people you love.
• Your love for God will be the only motivation powerful enough to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.
• What does God mean when He promises to be with you always? It means He is giving you a blank check to provide anything you need from Him to obey Him.
• Why would God expect you to do something as difficult as obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment in the Endtimes? Because Jesus Christ lives in you and can live through you.
• Perhaps the most powerful motivation humans have to obey God no matter how difficult it may be is to make God happy.
• We live our lives before an audience much more important than people. The most important beings watching our life are God, Angels, Satan, and demons.

A) Obey because Christ commanded it

Let us assume for a moment you are sufficiently convinced of the conclusions of Endtime Babylon. Understandably, you still might hesitate to literally and physically obey Revelation 18:4. Some might be tempted to say, “O.K. so we die. Maybe even instantly in a nuclear blast. Then we wake up on the New Earth for Eternity. What’s the big deal?”

The big deal is that there is a commandment of God in Revelation 18:4. He expects His people to correctly interpret it and courageously obey it.

Still some may think it would just be easier to stay in America and die, rather than going to all the trouble to leave America and die anyway. Maybe that would be easier. Maybe even a lot easier.

Of course, thousands of Americans have left this country to happily live in other countries. It has even become a popular decision to retire and even work remotely in foreign places. But the actual logistics of obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment are still challenging. It will require you to sell your home, leave your job, and maybe explain this to people who will not understand. Again, leaving America will probably be the hardest thing you have ever done for God. So, it will be very tempting to try to find an easier way.

But if you are a Christian, then the most important question for you is not what path will be the easiest for you and your loved ones. The most important question is this: will you sin against your Father in Heaven, or obey Him because you love Him more than anything or anyone else? Will you love God more than the sinful idols you worship in America? Will you love Him more than family and friends who refuse to obey Him? Those are the most important questions you need to ask.

God knows that Christ’s Last Great Commandment is especially challenging to clearly understand. He also knows that in our human weakness we may have all kinds of objections to obeying it. Excuses we give ourselves for not doing so. God anticipated such objections from His OT people, and inspired Moses with encouragement that is appropriate for Christ’s Last Great Commandment. Moses told God’s people that if they would obey the LORD and keep all his commands then:

“The LORD your God will then make you successful in everything you do. He will give you many children and numerous livestock, and he will cause your fields to produce abundant harvests …

The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach. It is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’… No, the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it.

Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster.

For I command you this day to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways.

If you do this, you will live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you and the land you are about to enter and occupy.

But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and if you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods, then I warn you now that you will certainly be destroyed…

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses.

Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. (Deut 30:9-12, 14-20 NLT)

God made His commandments clear to His OT people. They were written in this Book of Instruction (book of the law NIV). Notice that God expected His people to find and obey his voice found in the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction. Again, contrary to popular mysticism, God’s guidance and will was to be found in written Scripture. And the written divine revelation was not kept in heaven or difficult to know. No, God’s commandments were recorded in Scripture so that they could be in their heart so that they could obey it.

The same is true of the warning in Revelation 17:16 and the command in Revelation 18:4. You don’t need some mystical or miraculous authentication that these Scriptures are God’s Word. He clearly warned that some time after the Endtimes begin:

The ten horns [10-nation Endtime Coalition] and the beast [Resurrected Antichrist] will hate the Prostitute [Endtime Babylon], and these will permanently remove all people from her and strip her naked and they will devour her body and will burn her down with fire. (Rev 17:16)

Which is why we read a few verses later:

Then I heard another voice from Heaven say: “Move out of Babylon the Great My people; so that you will not be connected to her sins and so that you will not experience her being struck hard with a sudden and severe disaster. This is because her sins are piled up to Heaven and God has focused His attention on her wrongs” (Rev 18:4-5)

As stated in chapter 17, you need to decide if the 12 biblical attributes of Babylon the Great derived from Revelation 17-18 and Jeremiah 50-51 in this book, Endtime Babylon, are sufficient to convince you this prophecy is describing America. If so, then you need to decide if Christ is commanding you to leave America when the Endtimes begin.

Please do not make the kinds of excuses Moses warned the Israelites about. They might have been tempted to claim God’s commands were too difficult to understand or be sufficiently certain about. But Moses reminded them:

This command I am giving you today … is not kept in heaven, so distant that you must ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven and bring it down so we can hear it and obey?’… No, the message was written in this Book of Instruction.

We too might be tempted to agree with the popular and apathetic view on the doctrine of the Endtimes, that God is not expecting us to understand these things. But that is a lie. The prophecy in Revelation 17-18 and the command in 18:4 is not being concealed in heaven. Rather, it has been brought down to Earth, and revealed in Scripture so it can be in your heart so that you can obey it.

There will be times you will doubt God has really said these things. They are heavy, hard, and crazy things. But when you doubt, it will help you to read again Revelation 17:16 and 18:4 and be reminded of what you believe God is saying. Then they will be in your heart so that you can obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment when the Endtimes begin.

Even Christians who think the chapters of Endtime Babylon have reasonably interpreted Revelation 17-18, may choose to not leave America when the time to do so comes. If the interpretation offered here is correct, then they and their children would suffer the painful physical consequences. But they would experience something even worse than that. God’s people have experienced tragic deaths since the murder of Abel (cf. Gen 4:8). But there is something worse than death. It’s disobedience. Disobedience to even the least of God’s commandments is more tragic than the most painful death. The same will be true of disobeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of God’s people to date was the shameful and unnecessary death of an entire OT generation in the desert because of fear and rebellion. God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness (1 Cor 10:5 NLT). Tragic. But even more tragic will be the shameful and unnecessary death of tens of millions of American Christians in a nuclear holocaust. God will not be pleased with them either.

The Apostle told us concerning those OT people who died in the desert under God’s displeasure: These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age (1 Cor 10:11 NLT). Are we who live at the end of the age listening? So that we do not die shameful deaths in disobedience to God as they did? It might be the greatest tragedy of our life if we disobey Christ’s Last Great Commandment to leave Endtime Babylon (America) when the Endtimes begin.

B) Obey to love & protect your children

In the above OT passage Moses warned and pleaded with God’s people:

“Now listen! Today I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster… Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your children might live!” (Deut 30:15, 19 ^[1])

Likewise, obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment may be a choice between life and death … so that you and your children might live! Christ made it clear why He will say in the Endtimes, “My people, move out from Babylon the Great. It will be so that they will not experience her being struck hard with a sudden and severe disaster (Rev 17:16) including the slow, ugly, and painful death of radiation poisoning.

In both Deuteronomy 30 and Revelation 18 God is commanding His people to do something to avoid a painful disaster. Indeed, all of God’s commands are intended to do us good, not harm. Christ’s Last Great Commandment is no exception. When the Endtimes begin, Christ wants you to obey Him so that you and your children will escape His horrific punishment of idolatrous and sinful America.

Contrary to what many Christians dangerously believe, Revelation 17-18 is clearly predicting that a literal Antichrist and a real 10-nation Endtime Coalition will literally and permanently remove all people from the physical place of Endtime Babylon. This will happen when they physically burn it down with literal fire … in one literal hour causing real famine and physical and real death in a very real, literal, and physical severe disaster that will cause real suffering and pain.

As explained previously in Endtime Babylon, the prophecy in Revelation 18 states twice that the world’s people will be terrified by the torment (basanismou) that the people in Endtime Babylon will experience (vs. 10, 15). In fact, torment is used a third time in the prophecy where Christ commands from heaven (v. 4) regarding Endtime Babylon: “Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself” (v. 7). And He will.

The Greek word used here is a horrific word meaning “infliction of severe suffering or pain associated with torture.” ^[2] It is the strongest word in the Greek language for PAIN. Therefore, it is the chosen word in the NT to describe the experience of Hell. (cf. ch. 9, sec. A).

What would the torment and torture experienced by people remaining in Endtime Babylon be like, if the Antichrist attacks it with nuclear weapons? The prophecy promises every single person will experience death by fire, famine, or plagues (Rev 18:8). As also explained previously, the vast majority of such people, even if they are Christian men, women, and children, will die a rather slow, ugly, and painful death from radiation poisoning.

Again, the fact that the prophecy states 3 times that Endtime Babylon will be burned down with fire… in one hour clearly describes the use of nuclear weapons. Those who are instantly vaporized will be a very small part of the population as the blast radius of even modern warheads is just a few miles. As one expert stated in chapter 11: Only “50 percent of the people within a 3-mile radius will be dead and 40 percent severely injured.” What will happen to the other 50 percent living within 3 miles of the nuclear blast, and all of those living beyond that? They will die a slow, painful, and ugly death from radiation poisoning. As explained there:

Hair drops out, vomiting and bloody diarrhea occurs, accompanied by bleeding under the skin and from the gums. Death occurs from internal hemorrhage, infections, and blood poisoning causing shock and organ failure. (ch. 11, sec. A)

Perhaps you are still hesitant to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment in the Endtimes. If so, read again chapter 11 of Endtime Babylon about the effects of nuclear weapons, or chapter 13 (sec. D) that quotes God’s warnings in Jeremiah about what He is going to do to Endtime Babylon. In addition, Appendix D contains a review of a recent study on the effects of nuclear war.

As noted in chapter 11, the following picture was taken after a rather small nuclear weapon was used in Hiroshima. It is not intended to be sensational or manipulative. Rather, such a picture will be multiplied millions of times in reality if the Antichrist destroys Endtimes Babylon (America) with nuclear weapons:

As stated in chapter 17, probably the worst thing that will happen if everything in this book Endtime Babylon is wrong, is that you will live for some time in a foreign country during the Endtimes. But the worst thing that will happen if this book is right is… unimaginable.

Therefore, God wants LOVE to be your guide. The Bible says love … always protects (1 Cor 13:7 NIV). That is why God gave His people the warning and command in Revelation 17-18. He wanted to love and protect His people from Antichrist’s Attack on Endtime Babylon (America) in the Endtimes. Likewise, love and your desire to always protect those who depend on you, should be a major reason you seriously consider the biblical arguments in Endtime Babylon.

Therefore, it is not the perceived probability that the conclusions of Endtime Babylon are correct that matters the most. Rather, it is the value of the people we love and want to protect that matters even more. You may still have doubts that the conclusions in Endtime Babylon are correct. But if you value your life and the life of others highly, you do not need to be 100% confident of these things to take steps to protect yourself and them in the Endtimes from even the possibility that the conclusions in Endtime Babylon are correct.

Again, such things may be the most difficult decision you will ever make. But God also intended love to be a powerful guide in difficult decisions. Paul wrote to the Philippians:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best (1:9-10 NIV).

Love helps us to be able to discern what is best even in a difficult decision like how to respond to Revelation 17-18 in the Endtimes.

Like Moses pleaded with God’s OT people, this author pleads with you to consider the kind of punishment God is warning He will unleash on Endtime Babylon, and what that could mean for your children if you do not obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

C) Obey to love God more than anything or anyone else

Of course, loving the people who depend on you is a powerful and biblical reason to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. But Moses reminds us of an even more important reason we would obey it:

For I command you this day to love the LORD your God and to keep his commands, decrees, and regulations by walking in his ways… You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. (vs. 16, 20)

The most important reason to obey God is not to avoid unnecessary pain and disaster. The most important reason to obey God is to LOVE Him no matter what happens. As Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will obey My commandments” (John 14:15, cf. NASB).

Moses warned God’s people about the ultimate reason they would not love the LORD their God and keep his commands: If your heart turns away and … you are drawn away to serve and worship other gods (v. 17). The same kind of idolatry may be why you do not obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

There is no desire to be unnecessarily harsh here. But let’s be honest about the real reason you may not obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. Idolatry. The very same kind of idolatry that has made God so angry with America, as previously discussed in Endtime Babylon, chapters 12-13. The same idolatry that will cause God to severely discipline even Christians in America, as discussed in chapters 14-15. The same idolatry that will cause American Christians to distort, ignore, and unnecessarily doubt the meaning of Revelation 17-18 and instead, choose less painful interpretations, and more popular teachers, as warned in chapters 15 and 17.

Indeed, biblical arguments were provided in those chapters to warn that God will fulfill His promise to punish Endtime Babylon (America) even if there are millions of Christians living there, because of the widespread idolatry of the Christians as well. And the refusal of Christians to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment to escape America’s punishment may in fact prove that perspective. It may even be because of the idolatry of American Pastors that many American Christians will not even understand Revelation 17-18. You can be sure of one thing. It will be idolatry that causes all of this.

How about you Christian? Being faced with Christ’s Last Great Commandment may reveal there are things and people we love and depend on more than God. That’s idolatry. Simply put, one of the greatest reasons obeying Revelation 18:4 in the Endtimes will be so difficult, is that we are so attached to our life and people in America.

None of this is to diminish the incredible difficulties of confidently understanding the prophecy of Revelation 17-18 and courageously obeying the divine command given here. Some of the challenges may seem virtually impossible.

But be sure of one thing. Do not be guilty of the very idolatry that God is going to punish America for. Do not make the comforts, jobs, homes, and lifestyle you enjoy here more important than obeying and trusting God.

But it is probably not the “stuff” of your life that will make this decision so difficult. It is the people you love. What are they going to think? What are they going to do? What are my responsibilities to them? Wouldn’t God want me to stay and care for them? Hard questions.

The prospect of leaving family members will make it especially difficult to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. Some of them will disobey because they are not real Christians. But some of them may be real Christians who refuse to accept the biblical arguments in Endtime Babylon for the idolatrous reasons Moses warned about. They refuse to listen, and are drawn away to serve and worship other gods.

Like the comfortable life they have in America. Like the people they care about and want to please in America. Like all the sinful idols that their fears and worries reveal in their life. For all these reasons, many unbelievers and Christians in your life may not obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment when the Endtimes begin. In such a case, what will God want you to do? Even if they are your older children, parents, or spouse?

It is tempting to think that your first responsibility is to stay with your family and friends and love and serve them. But disobeying God to “love” people means you love those people more than God. Please understand my friend that even our attachment to the people we love can be a sinful idol in our life. God expects you to love Him first and more than any other person. That’s why Jesus your Lord and Savior said the following:

“If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26 NLT).

“Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came not to bring peace, but a sword. ‘I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Your enemies will be right in your own household!’

“If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. (Matt 10:34-38 NLT)

“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:29-30 NIV)

Christ clearly commands His disciples to love Him more than their spouse (wife), children, siblings, and parents. Unfortunately, that love may be tested in the Endtimes. If anyone wants to force you to disobey a command of God, in order to “love” them, then you must not “love” them, but rather love God.

NT scholar John Nolland, commenting on Matthew 10:37 above, says it best regarding Christ’s words: “He insists on such a fierceness of loyalty to himself that the significance of normal bonds and commitments, and specifically family ones, is undercut.” ^[3]

Commenting on Luke 14:26 Darrell Bock writes:

Discipleship is fundamentally a call to allegiance. Jesus is to have first place over all, including family… Nothing else is to be first… The call to hate simply means to “love less”… Following Jesus is to be the disciple’s “first love.” This pursuit is to have priority over any family member and one’s own life, which means that all other concerns are to take second place to following Jesus (Luke 8:19-21; 9:24, 59-62; 12:4, 49-53; 16:13; Matt 10:37-39; John 12:25). ^[4]

Finally, John MacArthur also comments on Matthew 10:34-37 and writes:

Becoming a Christian requires affirming the lordship of Christ to the point where you are willing to forsake everything else… [Saving] faith that is genuine will be manifested in a commitment that cannot be swayed by any influence.

The Christian is to love his family with self-sacrificing love. Christian husbands and wives are to love each other and their children with unreserved devotion. Christian children are to love, respect, and care for their parents as unto the Lord. But a believer’s commitment to Christ is so profound and far-reaching that any relationship that endangers that relationship must be sacrificed if necessary…

John Bunyan was told to quit preaching or be thrown in prison. He knew that if he went to prison his wife and children would be left destitute. They had little enough to eat and wear when he was free; but if he were imprisoned they would be totally impoverished. Yet he knew he must preach the gospel God had called him to preach. Because he refused to stop preaching, he was imprisoned; and from his cell he wrote:

The parting with my wife and poor children hath often been to me in this place as the pulling of the flesh from my bones; and that not only because I am somewhat too fond of these great mercies, but also because I would have often brought to my mind the many hardships, miseries, and wants that my poor family was like to meet with, should I be taken from them, especially my poor blind child, who lay nearer my heart than all I have besides. Oh, the thought of the hardship I thought my blind one might go under would break my heart to pieces…

But yet, recalling myself, thought I, I must venture all with God, though it goeth to the quick to leave you. Oh, I saw in this condition, I was a man who was pulling down his house upon the head of his wife and children; yet thought I, I must do it. I must do it. ^[5]

You were reminded in chapter 16 that God intended Christ’s Last Great Commandment to be a TEST for American Christians in the Endtimes. Indeed, it will reveal if we love anything or anyone, including our very selves, more than God.

But let us also remember that Jesus is not asking us to do anything He has not done for us. He left the very comfortable place He lived in for all of eternity past, to come to Earth to save us. In the Endtimes, He will be asking American Christians to leave the comfortable place they live in, to save themselves. Obviously, our chief Example and Lord was willing to do hard things for God. This was discussed in the context of the Endtimes in the last chapter of the book, The Beginning of Birth Pains.

Jesus valued His obedience to His Father higher than His concern for His mother, brothers, and closest friends, even if they did not understand what He was doing (cf. Mark 3:20-21, 31-35). When Jesus told Peter what God’s will was for Him, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” People in your life may do the same when it is time to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. What did Jesus do when someone wanted to hinder Him in obeying God to do a very difficult task? Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matt 16:22-23 NIV). Do not let merely human concerns from you or others keep you from obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

How can you tell if others are speaking to you and encouraging you in the Spirit about Revelation 17-18? As noted in chapter 16, emotions such as worry, anger, or apathy are not fruits of being controlled by God’s Spirit, but rather a person’s sinful nature. You never want to be persuaded by anyone about anything if they are speaking to you with such sinful emotions.

Finally, your love for God is not only an important reason to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. Your love for God will also be a powerful motivation to obey it. Moses said it this way: You can make this choice by loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. (v. 20). In fact, that is the only way you will be able to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. This is because the challenges of obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment will greatly test how firmly you are committing yourself to him. Your love for God will be the ultimate motivation to believing and obeying this commandment in the Endtimes.

The power of such love is reflected in the Scripture you read above. Again, Jesus said: “If you love Me, you will obey My commandments” (John 14:15). This is a promise. ^[6] Your love for Christ will compel and empower you to obey His commandments, including Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

The power of loving God is reflected elsewhere in Scripture: This is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome (1 John 5:3 NLT). Notice that love for God will make even a command as heavy and hard as Christ’s Last Great Commandment, feel not burdensome. When we are doing even the hardest things, because we love God and we know we are pleasing Him, we experience joy.

Do not be surprised if you encounter overwhelming challenges in your pursuit to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. In those times, your fears, or even an initial excitement about what might happen, will probably not be enough. Only the power of your love for God will be strong enough to carry this command in a joyful and thankful way that is not burdensome.

Christian, how much do you love God? Your answer to that question will decide if you will correctly and courageously understand Revelation 17-18 and obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment in the Endtimes.

D) Obey because you will be able

God’s commands are often very challenging. But Moses gave God’s people a promise from God that applies to all of God’s commands, including Christ’s Last Great Commandment. He said: “This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, and it is not beyond your reach” (Deut 30:11). In spite of all the difficult challenges of leaving America in the Endtimes, you can be certain it will not be too difficult for you. Like any good parent, God would never give His children a command they are not able to obey.

The NT repeats this promise when we read:

God is faithful; he will not let you be tested [peirasthēnai ^[7]] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tested, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it (1 Cor 10:13).

Indeed, Christ’s Last Great Commandment in Revelation 18:4 presents all American Christians with a great test. But God will provide a way out of America’s destruction and enable you to endure doing so.

There is another amazing reason that even God’s most challenging commands will never be too difficult for you. Why would God expect you to do something as challenging as obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment in the Endtimes? Because Jesus Christ lives in you and can live through you. Paul asks all Christians: Don’t you realize that Jesus Christ is in you? (2 Cor 13:5 ^[8]). He told all Christians: Christ lives in you (1:27 NLT). He said of himself: My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me (Gal 2:20 NLT). Jesus Christ, through the indwelling of God’s Spirit lives in you, and can live through you. So God is not expecting the weak, fearful, sinful nature in you to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. He is expecting the Jesus Christ in you to do this.

Therefore, imagine how easily, courageously, peacefully, and even joyfully Jesus Christ in you would obey His Last Great Commandment and live in the Endtimes? That is the power God wants you to experience. This is why He put His Spirit in you!

Christians continually underestimate what should be expected of people who have God and His Spirit living inside of them. God does not make that mistake. He never forgets He put His own Person in you, which is why He expects a lot of you. As Paul said, “I can do everything through Christ [in me], who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13 NLT). Including whatever it takes to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment in the Endtimes.

E) Obey to please & glorify God

E.1) Obey to please God

Exodus Conviction #7 is: I will do my best to please and glorify God in all I do in the Endtimes. Pleasing and glorifying God are vital motivations for obeying any of God’s commands. Which is why Moses mentions them as well.

First, Moses spoke about pleasing God when He said: “The LORD your God will delight in [sus al “feel happy about” ^[9]] you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction” (Deut 30:10 NLT). This is another powerful motivation humans have to obey God no matter how difficult it may be: To make God happy. Which is why God’s Word repeatedly tells us that His children can disappoint or delight their Father based on their obedience.

THIS is what we must be focused on as we decide whether or not to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment. God is watching how His children live. Their obedience, faith, courage, and love delight the LORD your God. What greater privilege could a mere human have? Making our Father in Heaven happy is a tremendous motivation for pursuing even a very difficult task like Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

Unfortunately, the opposite is true as well. We can disappoint our Father. If we can delight the LORD your God and please Him, then we can certainly displease Him. Or as Scripture says, bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live (Eph 4:30 NLT). If you doubt that God’s feelings are affected by the obedience or disobedience of His people then read the OT. Therefore, as we face obeying Christ’s Last Great Commandment, we must not think about how to please ourselves (Rom 15:1), but rather, the promise that The LORD your God will delight in you if you obey … the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction (Deut 30:9), including the command in Revelation 18:4.

E.2) Obey to glorify God

Likewise, glorifying God is a vital motivation in all we do. Therefore, as Moses stood before God’s people to encourage them to obey God he said: “Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make” (Deut 30:19). Why would Moses call on heaven … to witness the choice God’s people would make? Because the beings in the spiritual realm are watching what we do for God. They are watching to see if we will obey and glorify God.

Glorifying God simply means to make God look glorious to others. To reveal His greatness through our worship, love, and obedience to Him. Unfortunately, when most Christians think about glorifying God, they merely think about what other people will see. But we live our lives before an audience much more important than people. The most important beings watching our life are God, Angels, Satan, and demons.

The Apostle Paul put it this way:

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools (1 Cor 4:9 NIV, v. 10 NLT)

Paul knew his life for God was being watched. But not just by human beings but by angels as well. But it is not just God and Angels watching our life. Satan and demons do as well. This is why God and Satan knew so much about Job’s life (cf. Job 1:6-10). And why Job gave God so much glory when he continued to worship God even in the midst of painful circumstances.

Do you understand Christian that your life is being watched by beings in the spiritual realm? And what are they watching for? To see if you will obey, love, and glorify God. This is why Moses told God’s people: I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make” (Deut 30:19). It will not just be people on earth who will know if you obeyed and glorified God. The beings in the heavens or spiritual realm will witness your choice as well. Including your choice of whether or not to obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

You may not glorify God in the sight of any people. As the Apostle said: Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools. But it does not matter what people think. What matters is how God views us, and even what Angels, Satan, and demons think of us. Our most important purpose in life is to please and glorify God, and disappoint Satan, just like Job did.

Which is why Exodus Conviction #7 is: I will do my best to please and glorify God in all I do in the Endtimes. None of us will glorify God perfectly. But we will please and glorify Him when we do our best to obey Him.

Obedient American Christians who obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment will live on in the Endtimes to glorify God in whatever He has planned for them. But the Christians who are slaughtered in Endtime Babylon (America) will suffer for nothing. Actually, worse than nothing. They will suffer in disobedience to God’s will because of ignorance or fear.

If the Last Generation of Christians living in Endtime Babylon (America) do not obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment, then they will leave this world with an embarrassing wimper, instead of living a life worthy of the calling they have received (Eph 4:1) as the chosen sons, servants, and soldiers of God Almighty. All because they will not understand, accept, respect, and obey Christ’s Last Great Commandment.

1. The text is from the NLT except for the substitution of children from the NIV instead of the NLT’s descendants. ↑

2. BDAG. ↑

3. Nolland, Matthew, 441. Nolland adds regarding Matt 10:37:

   The discomfort of these challenging words is often softened by placing an emphasis on [merely] readiness to put God ahead of family, and then establishing a context in which God is so pro-family that such a possibility remains only hypothetical. This is very different from what we find in Matthew. (441) ↑

4. Bock, 1284-5. ↑

5. MacArthur, Matthew, loc, 19382-19405. ↑

6. The NLT reads “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15). The NIV is essentially the same. Such translations imply that a person could love Christ but not obey Him. On the contrary, the NASB (and ESV, NET) is better which has: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” As Carson explains:

   Jesus neither assumes that his followers love him, nor assumes that they do not, even for the sake of the argument. Rather, Christ states a condition and stipulates its result: [those who love Him] will obey what he commands. The future tense, not the imperative, is the correct reading. ↑

7. The Greek word peirazō used twice in 1 Cor 10:13 can mean either: 1) “to entice to improper behavior, tempt;” or 2) “to endeavor to discover the nature or character of something by testing, try, make trial of, put to the test” (BDAG). BDAG places its usage in 1 Cor 10:13 in the latter definition as it is in the suggested translation used here. ↑

8. Cf. NIV. The NLT translation here is unfortunate and has: Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you with a text note stating: “Or in you.” But the context is clearly individual people evaluating whether they are a Christian. Therefore, in you, as in the individual, fits the context better than among you as in the congregation as a whole. Accordingly, Barnett notes: “’in you,’ rather than ‘among you,’ [is] dictated by the twice repeated ‘yourselves.’” (608; cf. Barrett, 338; Fee and MacArthur do not even think the matter is worth discussion and translate it as in you. ↑

9. The Hebrew in Deut 30:9 is sus al which literally means “rejoice over” (TWOT, 873). However, most English speakers interpret “rejoice” to mean “give thanks.” But Webster’s defines “rejoice” as “to give joy to.” Thus the translation, “make happy.” ↑