Signs of the Times Pt 1

Good morning. Did y'all stand with us?

I remember when we were growing up in this area, one of the TV stations was cake, and this guy would always say, it's a beautiful day in cake land, you know. But it is a beautiful day here today. Good weather, a good time to worship the Lord, just to come before Him just as we are. Father, we thank you for this opportunity this morning to worship in song and to study your Word.

Father, you are so good to us.

We thank you for your Word, that it's a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. We thank you for your unfailing love, your mercy, your grace, Lord, your sovereignty. You are in control. You are keeper of the stars. Keeper of the stars. Lord of time. In space.

And Father, it's so awesome to remember and think that as you keep the stars, you've laid it all out, Lord.

And Father, we know that Jesus died on that cross and He rose from the dead and He's ascended up to the right hand of the Father and is seating for us. And with that same resurrection power, He raised Christ from the dead. He's made us alive in Christ. And we thank you for that, Lord. We are yours. And you love us with an unfailing love that we can't even really comprehend.

We're just thankful.

Because they know the battle.

He will save you. He'll rest in His love with singing.

He was singing.

Would you stand?

My mind is His feet. I save the Messiah in the name.

Thank you for this opportunity again to gather in worship and to study your Word. And so, Father, as Ryan will be coming up, Lord, that you would just anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit to teach your Word. Give us open ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to perceive that which you have this morning. And then an attitude of obedience to you, Lord, because you first loved us, we love you.

Amen. Let's have some fellowship.

Oh, there it is. Good morning. Glad you could be here this morning. If you could start to locate your seat. We'll go over a handful of announcements and then we'll get ready to get started.

Welcome to Calvary. Glad you could be here this morning. We had some technical difficulties, difficulties with the computer this week, so we don't have any bulletins, but a handful of things to go over with you. First of all, we have men's breakfast coming up Saturday, October 22nd. So, fellas, take note of that. Saturday, October 22nd is going to be our men's breakfast.

We also have coming up next Sunday in the afternoon, October the 16th from 2 to 3.30 is the Life Chain. We'll begin. We're going to be gathering over at Kansas and Summit. Family Life Services hosts this every year. It's just an opportunity to make people aware of the fact that there are people that care about the issue of life. So that will be next Sunday from 2 to 3.30.

Also, a couple of things to take note of. The Prophecy Study is this Thursday. Rick will be doing that. Also, Marriage and Family is tonight. And then the last thing is that there are some books to be given away at the very end of the hallway. The ladies went through the library and kind of decided some things that we needed to cull out. So if you are interested in a lot of really good reading material,

all those boxes are back in the Agape room. Take as long as you want to go through them. After today, they will go be donated to Angels in the Attic. So take advantage of as much of those as you possibly can. Now, before we get into anything else, we also need to be reminded about Operation Christmas Child, and we have a very special visitor with us this morning.

Come on up.

Yeah, you can hear me. Good morning. My name is Phil. Phil a box. So this morning, we're here to talk about Operation Christmas Child. And Jana talked about the awesome numbers and things that we were looking for last week. But today, I want to talk about the trip to Dallas. We have 40 positions that we're trying to fill to go to the Dallas Distribution Center.

And so we need people who want to go. That will be coming up on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. So Thanksgiving's Thursday. We got Friday, right? And then Saturday morning, we're going to meet here early at the church, drive down and work at the Dallas Distribution Center from three until... seven, and then come back Sunday morning. So we'll have a hotel down there.

We're working on hotel rooms. We need to get the hotel stuff worked out. So we'd like to get as many people on the list that we can, so we can get this worked out. And we also have, is that it, everything I need to cover today? Okay. Next, we have a short video we'd like to show you. My name is Edward Ndeke. My name is Edward Ndeke. And I'm from Texas. And I'm from Texas.

And I'm from Texas. And I'm from Senegal. My name is Edward Ndeke, and I'm from Senegal.

Ninety-five percent of people where I grew up are not Christian. But from all of that population, God picked my dad to be a pastor. Growing up was not easy, seeing your friends going to school. We have to stay at home because my parents didn't have money to send us to school. I was so upset. I was so upset because all my friends have everything they want. When I said, Dad, why we are not blessed like them?

And he said, even if you don't eat, even if you don't have stuff, Edward, remember that you have God. I was involved in the group, Good News Club, that Wednesday was amazing. We were coming to have fun, to laugh, to joke, to do all of that, and we received a box. We opened it. In the side of the box was toothbrush. I didn't have to brush when I was growing up.

We used charcoals and salt to brush our teeth. Having it for the first time was just a miracle. This is the wow. It was wrapped like this. I didn't know what is inside. Carefully. This is my yo-yo. This is my yo-yo. Every day. Every night. With the neighborhood. We always play. Someone cares. God. He cares so much. He has to use someone, somewhere around the world, to pack my box.

I came to the United States because of my background, bigger track athlete. I was involved in the church in my local town, and one time, I saw the boxes I received when I was 14, and I was so excited. I didn't have words. I was just like, what is this? Where did this come from? Is reality here? People, you guys are doing this for real? And they said, yes. I said, I received one when I was 14.

And everybody was so happy. Everybody was looking at me like, yes, you are in our church. Seeing God connecting me being 14 and coming to the United States and to see the two elements just connected as a perfect picture, showed me that I'm in the right spot. I'm in the right place. I'm in the right place. I feel so blessed. I feel so blessed. I feel so happy.

I feel so happy. I feel so happy. I feel so happy. I feel so happy. I feel so happy. I feel so happy. I feel so happy. the two elements just connected as a perfect picture? Show me that I'm in the right spot. I'm in the right place serving the Lord. Daniel is my son. Daniel is the version of Edward in Senegal, but in the United States. Talking to him is the opportunity like my dad told me.

No matter what you struggle with, remember, you have a God that loves you. Daniel packed boxes, and he liked to say also his dad received one. In the corner of this universe, you have a kid that is waiting for you to pack a box for them. It's not just a shoe box that you are packing. You are changing lives.

So remember that last year, I think they did a little over 10 million boxes were collected. And each box, they know, by following them, I've probably reviewed this with you before, but each box can touch up to seven people with the gospel message. So in a period of five or six weeks that we're collecting these little shoe boxes, putting these gifts in, God is going to use them to touch so many lives. And you can see that boy there, that man there, it was the first gift he'd received in his life.

And there's a whole lot of people who repeat that and state that they'd never had a gift before until somebody handed him a shoe box. So God uses this in a very powerful way. So thank you. If you have any questions, please come see Jana or myself after service and we can get you signed up if you'd like to go. It's a lot of fun. Just review. Thursday, November 26th.

Depart here at 9 a.m. We'll work from three to seven, then have dinner and then come back. So please join us if you can. Thank you.

Thanks, Phil. I'm not going to lie. The only thing that makes it makes it only the only thing that makes it okay, that I can watch these super emotional videos is if I can look at him in a box. So that's the only reason I can hold it together right now. So appreciate that. All right. For our, it's going to be a unison reading this morning for our unison reading.

We are going to be in Psalm 99, Psalm 99. We'll be looking at the new American standard. So we sound the same. And as you are turning to Psalm 99, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

And if you, if you would please read along with me, Psalm 99, the Lord reigns. Let the people's tremble. He is enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth shake. The Lord is great in Zion and he is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. The strength of the king loves justice. You, you, you, you, , you have established equity.

You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord, our God and worship at his footstool. Holy is he. Moses and Aaron were among his priests and Samuel was among those who called on his name. They called upon the Lord and he answered them. He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They, they kept his testimonies and the statute that he gave them.

Oh Lord, our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them and yet an avenger of their evil deeds. Exalt the Lord, our God, worship at his holy hill for holy is the Lord, our God and father. We want to praise you for how holy you are and Lord that you as a holy God have seen fit to forgive us of our sin. We want to praise you for how holy you are and Lord that you as a holy God have seen fit to forgive us of our sin.

And to make us a part of your family because of the blood of Jesus Christ. And Lord, I pray that now as we prepare to spend time in your word as we prepare to look at the things that will take place in the end. I just ask that your holy spirit would do the work necessary in our hearts, Lord, more than anything that we would keep our hearts in our minds and our eyes focused on you. The author in the finisher of our faith.

We just thank you father in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the gospel of Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. The title of the message this morning is really the first in a series called the signs of the times. Because in chapters 24 and 25, that's exactly what Jesus is going to be discussing. It's going to be prompted by a question from the disciples, actually three questions from the disciples, but it will all be Jesus laying out the things that will be coming in the future.

I always get nervous talking about prophetic things because it's usually a difficult section anytime you come across. And the thing that always makes me the most nervous is that there's so many different opinions. And as we come to chapters 24 and 25, that's. That's no different. As a matter of fact, this is a difficult section that we'll be looking at. It's difficult for three reasons. It's difficult. First of all, because timelines can tend to bounce around a little bit.

Prophecy is full of a couple of things. It's full of partial fulfillment and complete fulfillment. In other words, there's some aspects of it that are fulfilled partially, and then things will be filled completely at the end. Prophecy is also full of what's called near fulfillments and future fulfillments. And so it gets a little confusing when you start talking about these things because timelines can kind of bounce around a little bit. And even what Jesus tells to his disciples is no different.

It's also a difficult section because oftentimes when you talk about prophecy and things of the end, it can sometimes be vague. And the reason why sometimes things are kind of vague is because Jesus knows our minds can only take so much at one time. And so sometimes things are a little bit vague. And the thing that makes it the most difficult, as I mentioned before, is that there are lots of different.

Opinions. There's lots of different ideas when it comes to the things of the end and prophetic things. So my goal in anything that we do over the next couple of chapters and in any other aspect of prophetic teaching that I would do is to keep the main thing, the main thing. That's always my goal. If we have missed Jesus, then we have missed the point of any of it.

So as I do so, as I seek to keep the main thing, the main thing, first of all, my focus will continue. To be on Jesus. Our goal should never be to identify who the Antichrist is, but who the Christ is. Our goal should never be to try to figure out what the new moon means or what any of these other things means. It should be to look for Jesus. Our goal should never be to look for the one world government, but to look for Jesus.

And so my goal is that we will always keep our focus on Jesus because second of all, he is coming back. As a matter of fact, I myself did not search. This out to make sure that it was true, but I trust the people that told me this. Most commentators that I read said one in every 10 verses in the New Testament refers to the second coming of Christ, because that's the thing that we're looking forward to is when he comes again to rule and reign as the perfect king.

And so as the emphasis is in chapters 24 and 25, my goal will be to continue to cause us to be ready. As a matter of fact, I'm going to be looking forward to the second coming of Jesus. In fact, more than half of what Jesus has to say over the next two chapters, as the disciples ask him, tell us about the signs of the end and of your second coming. Over half of the things that he says have to do with the subject of being ready.

He will encourage it, he will illustrate it, and he will exhort us to be ready. And as a matter of fact, in any kind of aspect of us talking about the second coming of Christ, if it does anything in us besides produce a purity and a desire to know our Savior more, then we have missed it. We have missed the point of the entire thing. Because you can get off on rabbit trails really easily, but rabbit trails aren't where we find Jesus.

Rabbit trails will always lead us away from the truth. They will always lead us away from the main thing. And so my goal will be to keep us focused on the main trail that will continue to lead us to a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ. And so, as we approach chapter 24, we, first of all, are reminded of where we left Jesus last time. Jesus had just laid out the judgment,

of the religious leaders of the day. He had pronounced eight woes upon them, eight woes that all really centered on one main issue that they drew near with their mouths, but their hearts were far from him. And so Jesus had just ended this as he was amongst all of the religious leaders. And so that is a segue into chapter 24, where it says this, Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings, to point out the temple buildings, to point out the temple buildings, to point out the temple buildings, to point out the temple buildings, to him.

And he said to them, do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down. And as he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? So the first thing that we see

is some questions from the disciples. They begin asking him some questions, but it all starts off, with one symbolic move of Jesus and really a symbolic statement that Matthew makes. Because this statement that Matthew makes that Jesus came out from the temple and was going away carries a little bit more weight to it than just simply Jesus leaving the temple. It really is somewhat of a symbolic statement of the fact that Jesus was leaving behind the religious leaders of the nation of Israel, listen, because they had left him.

Listen, they had rejected Jesus and so he was in the place of rejecting them. Something that will find its ultimate fulfillment in what he says in the next few verses when he talks about the temple being torn down. And so there was something very symbolic about Jesus walking away. But as Jesus is walking away from the temple, the disciples had found themselves stopping for just a moment because the scenery was so beautiful.

Remember, they weren't always in Jerusalem. They had spent most of their ministry life up in the area of Capernaum. Near Galilee. And so coming to Jerusalem was something that they did to keep the feasts as they were supposed to as Jewish men. And so as they had shown up at the temple this week, they were somewhat taken aback as they were leaving, undoubtedly because the sun was gleaming off

of the beautiful building of the temple. And as they looked at that beautiful building of the temple, they found themselves, like most of us do, when we look at scenery, just kind of going, wow, that's beautiful. Because all of history teaches us, that the temple that Herod had built was absolutely beautiful. There were absolutely large stones that had been put into place so perfectly that you couldn't fit a knife blade between them.

At the top of the temple, there was a gold mounting that was so beautiful that the sun just gleamed off of it. It almost looked white. And so as the disciples looked at this beautiful temple that Herod had built, this beautiful structure that Herod built, they said, they were amazed, and they were pointing it out to Jesus and undoubtedly saying, look at how beautiful this temple is. Look at how amazing this building is.

But you know, there was something deeper that went on with the disciples as well as the other members of the nation of Israel when it came to the temple. And that's that the temple for the people of Israel had become an idol. As a matter of fact, their great hope was in the fact that they had this temple. That's why Jesus said, He said, you say you can swear by the temple because they held it in such high regard.

It had become a religious idol as far as the nation of Israel was concerned because no matter what was going on with them being occupied by Rome, they still had the temple. Their occupation by the nation of Rome came about because of their absolute spiritual deadness, but they still found that they had the temple. And it was somewhat of an idol to them. And so as they point these things out to Jesus, you can just imagine the scene, right?

Jesus is walking away from the temple, undoubtedly disheartened because of what he just had to do with the religious leaders. And all the disciples can think about is what? Look how beautiful that building is. And so Jesus looks at them and addresses them and says, do you not see all these things? Now, I think when Jesus said that, he wasn't asking them if they could physically see

all of these things. He was asking them if they had spiritual eyes to see all of these things. Because what they saw, was a beautiful temple. What Jesus saw was a whitewashed tomb. What they saw was a beautiful building in which was the greatest hope of the nation of Israel. And what Jesus saw was a relic that represented their spiritual deadness. And he said,

do you not see these things? And then he continued on from there. Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down. This would have been a shocking, shocking statement in the ears of the apostles. It would have taken them aback. It would have caused them to ask questions because of what Jesus just said. Because to think of that happening to their temple

was somewhat awe-inspiring. It was somewhat fearful. It was terrifying to them that this might take place. And you know what? This exact thing did take place. It will take place a little more than 35 years from the time in which Jesus is making this statement. Because in AD 70, and in the time of Jesus, in the time shortly before, the Jews decided that they would revolt

against the nation of Rome. Undoubtedly led by false prophets who had told them that that was God's plan. They revolted against the nation of Rome. And when they did so, Rome came down upon the nation of Israel in such a crushing way that history records it as one of the worst defeats ever. And one of the soldiers in a drunken rage threw a flaming torch inside of the church.

And he said, the temple caught on fire and all of the implements of the temple burned and the fire was so hot that the gold that was at the top of the temple began to melt. And it began to creep down into all of the crevices of the rocks. And so after all of that gold melted down into the crevices of the rocks, in the aftermath, Roman soldiers pulled down every stone of the temple so that they could remove all of the gold. An utter fulfillment of what Jesus said, that I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left upon another.

And before we get into the prophetic things that Jesus begins to say, may I make a quick parallel and a quick personal application in our lives to this. God loves to tear down the idols in our lives. You see, the greatest hope that the nation of Israel had at this point in time was not in the fact that the Savior was standing right in front of them, but in the fact that he was standing in front of the temple that they held in the highest regard. And because they held the temple in a higher regard than the Savior that it was to represent, God tore down their idol.

And brothers and sisters, in our own lives, sometimes we have these idols. These idols that take the place that only God should have because they are our greatest hope and they are our greatest joy. And sometimes in judgment and sometimes out of sin, out of love, God tears those idols down in our lives so completely that symbolically speaking, not one stone is left upon another. And listen, sometimes it's the greatest thing that will ever happen to us.

So Jesus makes this statement and this statement causes a question in the disciples. You can imagine they're still leaving the temple and they're leaving Jerusalem and they go to the Mount of Olives because that's what it says in verse three, where they were. They were on the Mount of Olives. And Jesus, probably after everything that he went through, sat down on a rock on the Mount of Olives and his disciples were gathered around him.

And as his disciples were gathered around him, undoubtedly coming up with all of these questions in their mind, probably choosing Peter to ask them, they asked three questions. They came to him privately, middle of verse three saying, tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Three questions.

Three questions that they ask him. Some only see two here. I see three. Number one, when will these things be? In other words, when is all of this going to take place? The tearing down of the temple. When's that going to take place? Number two, what will be the sign of your coming? Because they knew that the Messiah would come and rule as king. And what will be the signs of the end of the age?

From this point on, Jesus will give what most commentators refer to as the Olivet Discourse. Because it's a discourse, listen, from the Mount of Olives. We don't get creative in the things we come up with. We just come up with names, okay? He's going to give this Olivet Discourse. In Matthew's account, he doesn't really answer the first question very fully.

Luke's account, he does give a full answer. But we do see foreshadowings of the answer to the first question and some of the things that he says. But he definitely answers the last two. And what we're going to look at this morning is verses four through five. Four through 14. And what I feel like verses four through 14 discuss is what to expect until he returns.

Now again, I need to point something out to you. The rapture is not seen in this particular set of scriptures. We need to understand that because this particular set of scriptures is going to deal with the nation of Israel. There are things that we learn as disciples, but we don't see the rapture mentioned because this deals with the nation of Israel. The rapture deals with the church.

And may I just go ahead and tell you how I feel about this. I do believe in a literal seven-year tribulation. I believe in a literal millennial reign. And I do believe that the church will be raptured before this seven-year tribulation. I believe that because in the book of Daniel, it says that 70 sets of seven or 70 weeks have been decreed for the nation of Israel.

At the end of 69 of those weeks, it says that the Messiah, the Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself. Well, that's the crucifixion of Jesus. From that point on, there seems to be a gap because the next set of seven involve an antichrist who will set himself up as a God to be worshiped, which we'll deal with next week, referred to as the abomination of desolation. That's that last seven that deals with the nation of Israel.

So how do we account for the fact that in between the 16, the ninth set of sevens, which ends with the crucifixion of the Messiah and the 70th set of sevens that deals with an antichrist. So what is that middle time? Well, that middle time is what I call a parenthetical statement in history known as the church age in which the nation of Israel has been set on the shelf by God. Paul refers to it this way.

He calls it blindness in part that has come upon the nation of Israel until the first day of the new year. Until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. We're living in that church age right now. I believe based on my own personal study of scripture that the thing that will end that church age is the rapture of the church. When the church is taken out of here

because the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and then God will once again begin to deal with the nation of Israel and pour out judgment on an unbelieving earth known as the tribulation. We'll get to more of that next week. So we won't see the rapture of the church in this. So don't think to yourself, wait, I don't understand. I thought there was a rapture that took place

before the antichrist. There is. It's just not mentioned here because Matthew is dealing with the Jewish people because that's who his gospel is written to. So with that as a backdrop, we move into the things to expect until he returns. Starting in verse four, it says this. And Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you for many will come in my name

saying I am the Christ and will mislead many. You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened for those things must take place. But that is not yet the end for nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and in various places, there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

Then they will deliver you to tribulation and will kill you and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. At that time, many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many because lawlessness is increased. Most people's love will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end, will be saved.

This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come. Now, as Jesus begins to lay out what to expect when he returns, again, I believe that the timeline of this goes from his ascension on through the middle half of the tribulation. These are things that we even as disciples can expect. The first thing I take note of is that in verse four, he says, see to it that no one deceives you.

See to it that no one deceives you or misleads you. I love that that's the way that Jesus starts this off. You know why he starts off that way? Because the spirit of the age that we live in is a spirit of deception. You can call it what you want to, but that's exactly what it is. There is all kinds of deception in the world today. And listen, there has been

all kinds of deception in the world since Jesus ascended into heaven. It was within the first 30 years after Jesus ascended into heaven that the Gnostic heresy began to float around. Misleading, deceptive things have been around since then. As a matter of fact, how did we end up in all of this situation anyway? Because Eve was deceived by the serpent. This spirit of deception is everywhere around us,

which is why it is so important to us. This is why it is so important to us. it is so imperative that we as believers in Jesus Christ constantly be on guard against the deceptions that are around us. There are false teachings. There are half-truths. There are false messiahs. They're everywhere, and we have to pay attention to them. We need to use our discernment

because anything that does not point us to a deeper knowledge of Jesus Christ, listen, through the word of God, is deceiving us and pulling us away from the truth. You say, but gosh, what it says is true, and it seems like what it says is good. Yeah, but what it says is not the word. It's something separate. Therefore, it's something deceptive. He says, see to it that no one

misleads you, and then he begins to tell us about the things that we can expect in the world. Notice what he says. For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many. We've definitely seen this even in recent ages, quite recently. The two on the top of my head that I can think of is Jim Jones and David Koresh. David Koresh is the one that I remember the most

because I was in junior high when that whole thing happened with the Branch Davidian when he claimed to be the Messiah, and they all went and hunkered down with all of their weapons, and then the ATF accidentally burned them all to death inside of the Branch Davidian there. I remember that happening. That's the one that I remember the most, and of course, I was a really small child when the Jim Jones thing happened, but those were two instances where there were false messiahs claiming to be the Messiah and saying, follow me, and they were misleading many, and they're still around today. There are still those who are claiming to be false messiahs.

They're performing lying signs and wonders to try to pull people unto themselves. He says you need to be aware of those kinds of things because they're everywhere, and listen, their teaching is always exactly what it says, deceptive, because it's always going to pull you away from the purity of God's Word and the knowledge of the God of the Bible, and so we have to be aware of those kinds of things. The disciples needed to be aware of it, and we as believers in Jesus Christ today need to be aware of it. The second thing that he said that will take place in the world is wars and rumors of wars, and that's exactly what it says in verse 6. He says,

He tells next that there's always going to be war, and you know what? Since the time that Jesus ascended into heaven, there has been one central theme in the world that we live in, and that is war. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking somebody said that since the time that Jesus ascended, I want to say there's been like 20 years without war or something like that. I don't even know if that's accurate because it seems like there's always something that's going on. The wars that are

mentioned here are both wars on a smaller national scale. We might call them civil wars or coups or takeovers, but then there's wars that are on a worldwide scale. As a matter of fact, when it says, for nation will rise again, and kingdom against kingdom, the idea in the Greek there is a world war where there will be factions that join together to come against each other. Well, in our modern world, we have seen two world wars. As a matter of fact, it was somewhat unprecedented when World War I took

place. I was reading J. Vernon McGee on this, and he said, when I was a young boy, was around the time that World War I ended, and he said there were wheelbarrows full of books that said, Jesus is coming soon because we've just seen a world war. And he said, when World War II started, I was a young pastor that was just beginning my ministry, and he said, it will take at least two wheelbarrows to haul in all of the books that will say that Jesus is coming again soon now because of this second world war. And he said, you know what? It took a whole lot more

than two wheelbarrows to haul in all the books that people had written to tell us that Jesus was coming at any point in time. He said, we have to be careful. We have to be careful. We have to be careful that we understand that just because war takes place doesn't mean Jesus is coming soon. There's a lot of things that do teach us that, but remember what he says here. Just because you see

war, it doesn't mean that the end is coming yet. And war is something that we're seeing again. As a matter of fact, there's a lot of things happening right now that would tell us that perhaps a third world war is coming, and we should be prepared for that as believers in Jesus Christ. Not be prepared because we think, hey, I need to hunker down somewhere and make sure that I hide out, but prepared because people are going to need the hope of the truth of the gospel. And we'll talk about that a little bit more towards

the end. But do you know some of the things that are taking place right now? First of all, a sovereign nation has been invaded. That happened quite some time back when Russia came in and invaded Ukraine. You know when else the last time a sovereign nation was invaded in quite this sort of a fashion was when Germany invaded Poland right before World War II. Well, now they have all of their natural gas

that's been cut off to them. And from what I've seen, they've been cutting off all of their natural gas. From what I'm understanding, we are now shipping natural gas to them, liquefied natural gas on cargo ships to them. And you know what they're requesting now? They're requesting a military escort for merchant ships. Do you know the last time that military escorts for merchant ships

was requested? World War II, when ships were being sent to Europe to help out in the effort over there. Folks, things are shaping up for another world war. Does that mean that Jesus is coming soon? Maybe. Maybe it does. But maybe it doesn't. We need to live as if Jesus could come back at any time. Plan as if it's not going to be in our lifetime. Because Jesus is really clear to say that when you see these wars

start to come up, it doesn't mean you need to go hide out on the rooftop and just wait. It means you need to be about business. And we'll talk about that in just a minute. He said wars and rumors of wars are going to take place. But that is not yet the end. Number three, he says that there will be famines and earthquakes. Notice what it says. Verse seven, nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom in various places. And there

will be famines and earthquakes. And if you have the old or new King James, you know that pestilence is listed there as well. I'm not sure why the new American standard chose to leave that out, but they left that out. But I think it's something that should be included as well. Famines and earthquakes and pestilences. Famine, of course, simply hunger. And we know that hunger is something that's plagued our world almost

since the beginning of time. But hunger has definitely plagued our world to an even greater degree in our modern era. I remember as a little kid, all of the commercials on TV for all the folks in Ethiopia that needed food. You always remember those commercials? They put all the boys and girls on there that needed food. Always made me so sad. I wanted to send,

my mom would say the whole, you know, there's kids in Ethiopia that would wish that they were going to be in Ethiopia. And I remember that. And I remember that. And I remember that they could eat the dinner that you're refusing right now. And I was always willing to send it to them. We never quite made it there, but I was always willing to send it to them. But

that's always been an issue. And that those famines, that hunger that we see is one of those things that Jesus said were going to take place. And then of course there is earthquakes and earthquakes are continuing to happen in an increasing and intense and more intense sort of a fashion. I've lived in Kansas my entire life. And barring about two years, I've lived in Kansas

my entire life. And I remember around the age of, I want to say it was 13 or 14, they started saying, hey, there's fault lines in Kansas. And I was like, what? And I remember one time doing an earthquake drill. And all I can think was, this is the dumbest thing I've ever done in my life. We live in Kansas, right? Well, so I moved to California. And while I'm in California,

there was a big earthquake that hit Joshua Tree. And all of my friends were like, hey, Ryan, did you, did you feel that earthquake last night? I'm like, quit screwing with the Kansas guy. There was no earthquake last night. Turned out it was a big one. I slept through it, right? That's right. You give me a natural disaster. I can sleep through it. Well, then I

moved back to Kansas. And now all of a sudden over the past 10 years, what have we been having? Earthquakes. I'm like, son of a gun. Maybe we should have paid attention to those earthquake drills when I was in junior high. Maybe we ought to start doing them again. Maybe that's not a half bad idea. There was one in particular, I was laying in bed on a Saturday morning, sort of in between

sleep and not sleep. And one of the things that I remember is, I was laying in bed on a Saturday morning, and one hit and it completely jolted me out of bed. It takes a lot to jolt me out of bed. That one jolted me out of bed. Isn't it crazy what's going on? Jesus said those things would take place. And then of course there's pestilence, right? Disease. Well, we don't know anything

about diseases and viruses right now, do we? Well, we think we do, but we're seeing these things happen in intensity. But listen, all of these things, because this is number four, all of these things are simply the beginnings of birth pangs. We always have to remind ourselves, that when we see a pestilence come up and we think, oh my gosh, this means that Jesus is coming anytime. Well, there was also the bubonic plague. There was also the Spanish flu. We've seen these

before. These are the beginnings of birth pangs. Now, individually, each of these should not spark for us the fact that Jesus is coming soon. However, we do need to pay attention to the fact that they are increasing in intensity, that they are increasing in number. And all of those things should cause us to do one thing and one thing only. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. It's not time to

see if you can figure out who the Antichrist is. It's not time to see if you can try to figure out exactly what day Jesus may rapture the church to take us home or exactly what day he's going to return. It should cause us to do one thing, turn our eyes upon Jesus. And may I say probably actually two things. Let other people know the truth. So he says, these are the things that you

can expect. In the world, as the time continues to draw near, but then he tells us the things to expect as disciples. Notice what he says in verse nine. He says, they will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you. And you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Number one, he says that there will be deep persecution that will take place. For disciples. We live in such an interesting time right now because we have lived in such a

time of peace in the Western culture as believers in Jesus Christ. If you go anywhere besides the United States of America today, persecution, martyrs are actually at a historical high because there is more that takes place in our current day than there even was when the disciples were around. He says there will be great persecution. He says here that they will turn you over to tribulation. The word tribulation can also be

interpreted affliction, which can be defined like this, a pressing, a pressure or a pressing together. Do you know where else this word is used? This word is used by Paul when he says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our tribulation, in all of our, affliction and all of those places where we are pressed together. He says, listen, as believers in Jesus Christ, as disciples, you need to know that this is coming for you.

Why did Jesus tell them so many times that persecution was coming? Because persecution hurts. It doesn't just hurt physically. It hurts us emotionally and spiritually because we feel rejected as human beings. We feel like we're the enemy and Jesus assures them, listen, they're not persecuting you because of you. They're persecuting you because of me, but you just need to know that this is coming for you. And so he says, listen,

he says, you will be hated by all for my name's sake. And we have been somewhat delivered from this in the United States of America, but we need to know something, brothers and sisters, we have recently become the bad guys. We have recently become the enemy. It's been happening slowly, but surely it's been happening in the political world slowly, but surely as we continue to be labeled as extremists, as fundamentalists who are eventually going to cause some sort of problems. But no, it's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. It's going to happen. It's

going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. Now we are becoming the, uh, the masters of hate speech, the dictators of, of morality. We've become those that the world hates. If you stand for the truth, we're labeled as intolerant. We're labeled as bigots and we're labeled as extremists. And listen, that's going to continue

to happen. And we need to be prepared for that because as Jesus was telling his disciples this, that, Hey, as the day approaches, persecution will continue to increase. We as Western culture, disciples of Jesus Christ need to know our day is coming. It begins in places like the courtrooms. When you won't bake a cake for, uh, for a homosexual marriage, it begins in the courtrooms. When you won't bake a cake

for a celebration of a divorce. I didn't even know that was a thing. I heard about that this week. The same guy that wouldn't bake the cake for the same sex marriage would not bake cakes for people that wanted to have a celebration for their divorce. And so we're going to continue to divorce because he felt like marriage was too sacred for him to do something like that. It was

taken to court over both of them. You only hear about the same sex marriage one, but they were both issues that he dealt with. All of a sudden you become the spreaders of hate. When you say that marriage is between one man and one woman, all of a sudden you become the spreader of hate. When you say that God only creates men and women, those become the things. And when you start saying

things like Jesus is the only way to salvation, they call you so intolerant. We should not be surprised by these things because Jesus told us we would be hated by all. Listen, brothers and sisters, you can't allow the hate from other people to cause you to respond in kind. We'll deal with that in just a moment. He says, what you can expect as disciples is persecution. As a matter of fact, he goes on from there to say in verse 10, at that time,

many will fall away and betray one another. He says, because of that persecution, many will fall away. I would call it blessed subtraction because sometimes the best thing that you can do is identify who's really following Jesus and who is not. And listen, as things, as intensity increases, and as we continue to be called those that stand for the truth, as we continue to be called hate mongers, we need to understand that our crowds will begin to fend.

That things will begin to thin out in the church because many will fall away. They may not fall away from the faith. They may still go to a church, but they'll go to a church that will never confront a difficult issue. They'll go to a church that will never actually teach from the Bible. Or if they do, it will only be Jesus loves you. And they'll fall away from the faith. And we need

to understand something. A lesson that I learned in climbing a mountain, I learned that when you climb a mountain and that's that the closer you get to the top, the smaller the crowd gets because the closer you get to God, the smaller the crowd gets because there is a holiness that God requires of his people. And most people will say that's too much for me. He says for the disciples, persecution is coming. He also says, one thing to pay attention to is that there will

be many false prophets. Verse 11, many false prophets will arise and will fall away. And they will mislead many. Now this is different than false messiahs. False messiahs will claim that people should follow them. False prophets will spread half truths or untruth about the word of God. How can you identify a false prophet? Well, there's two ways to actually

learn about them in the book of Deuteronomy. First of all, if a false prophet does not point you to God, then they're false. If somebody is not pointing you to Jesus Christ, then it's false. And listen, you need to be aware of something. In Christian books, today are a whole lot of books that are false prophets. There's a whole lot of books that have mixed Eastern religions with Christianity and called it okay. There's a whole lot of books,

some of them are called the purpose-driven life, that are actually leading people astray because they are leading people into a wrong form of understanding of who Jesus Christ is. They are not actually presenting the purity of who Jesus Christ is. Some of these things are leading people astray. And listen, we need to use the Bible to understand who Jesus Christ is. We need to use the

discernment of the Holy Spirit to begin to identify truth. Because first of all, it will always lead you to Jesus. It will always do so through the word of God. The second thing that Deuteronomy tells us we can always identify false prophets is that the fruit of their life will always prove it. The fruit of their life will always prove. In Deuteronomy, it says that their

predictions must come true. Well, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know that we've got a lot of people making predictions, although there are some. I don't know that a lot of these false prophets are making predictions, but eventually the fruit of their life will prove them out. And brothers and sisters, we need to understand that there are many false

things that will lead us astray. Any book that you read, you should always ask yourself, is this lining up with what scripture has to say? If it seeks to identify the truth of man, identify the truth of God, or lead you down a path that does not line up with the word and does not use the word, you should probably throw it away because we don't want to be led astray by these false prophets. The third thing that he says is that there will be an increase of lawlessness. Notice

what he says, because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. The word lawlessness literally means the condition of being without law. And he says, because lawlessness increases, the love of many will grow cold. What does he mean by that? Well, I think there's a twofold thing that he means by that. Number one has to do with the fact that there's a lot of people

falling away. Because lawlessness will increase, many people's love for the Savior will grow cold. It will lose its spark. Because sometimes it's just easier to give in to get along. And when lawlessness is so intense, you can find yourself compromising. And you know what always happens with compromise? It quenches that working of the Holy Spirit. It quenches that fire

of the Holy Spirit. And as lawlessness increases, many people's love for their Savior will grow cold. But I was listening to Joe Foch teach on this, and I loved what he had to say. Because he said, what we need to understand is that the word love there is the word agape, that perfect kind of love. And he said, you know what can happen to us sometimes as we see the

lawlessness in the world around us? Is sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, we can become so frustrated with all of the lawlessness around us that we forget to love people. And our love as believers in Jesus Christ, we forget to love people. And our love as believers in Jesus Christ, can grow cold. Because we're so disheartened by the things we see. We're so upset at the anger and

the hate and the garbage that we see all around us that we can end up turning the world into the enemy. We can end up turning the world into the people that we're against. Forgetting that they are the ones who we need to show the true love of Jesus Christ to the most. And we can find ourselves becoming hard-hearted to a very lost world. And listen, brothers and sisters, we got

to guard ourselves against that. Because we cannot reach a world in need if we do not first love a world in need. The love of Jesus Christ is what compelled him to come and die. And the love of Jesus Christ is what should compel us to deliver that message to the people and to continue to care about people. Listen, even when they hate you. Even when they're opposed to you. And if you have found yourself in that

place where your love has grown cold, then you need to do the only thing that you can do. Repent. And ask God to shed that love abroad in your heart again. Open the, open the, take the lid off your heart and say, Lord, pour that love into me again. So that I can have that to give out. Lord, light that fire inside of me again. So that the love will not grow cold, but that it will burn strong, not only for you, but for the people that you want

to send me to. And then he says, he who endures to the end will be saved. The one who endures to the end will be saved. The one who endures to the end will be saved. The one who endures to the end will be saved. The one who endures to the end will be saved. So wait, are you telling me that salvation is based upon my endurance? No, your salvation is based upon Jesus and his grace. So what does he mean?

Well, again, I'll quote Joe Foch on this. He said, let's substitute a word there that I think more aptly fits what Jesus intended when he uses the word saved. He said, he who endures to the end shall be delivered. I think this is not the right word. I think this is not the right word. I think this is not the right word. I think this is not the right word. I think this is not the right word.

This is not only applicable for us as saints living in this day and age, but I think it's especially applicable for those who will find themselves as believers living during the tribulation, that their need will be to endure. But again, my goal is to keep the main thing the main thing. So what does this say to us? Believer in Jesus Christ, continue to endure. Continue to

endure the things that we need to endure. Don't give up. It's so easy to want to give up, isn't it? It's so easy to want to quit because, oh my gosh, again today, I was talking to somebody in prayer this morning and I said, you know, I used to always say you can't shock me anymore. I'd worked with young people for a very long time. I'd heard things that used to make my toes curl and go, whoa, I didn't know that was

going on in someone's life. And so I'd heard enough of it that I said, I can't be shocked anymore. Tell me anything that you need to know. I can't be shocked anymore. I can't be shocked anymore. Tell me anything that you need to tell me. But now in the world that we live in today, I can be shocked again. I didn't know it was possible, but I can. And sometimes as I hear all of these

shocking things, I just go, Lord, how can it ever be? How can we continue to do anything about this? How can I continue to endure? You just have to. It's by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's through the grace of God, but he calls us to continue to endure. Because brothers and sisters, we're not in a marathon. We're in a marathon. And you know what's important in a marathon? It's not where you

finish, it's that you finish. Continue to endure. And then of course, there's one last thing that he says. He says, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. I think that this is the message that we need to take with us for today. The work that the church is going to be doing. Listen, it's not one of those things where I have

to make sure I get as many people saved as possible, because once I do my job, God will do his job and come back. No, Jesus will come back when he's ready to come back. Our job is to occupy until then. Our job is to occupy until that time. I've had people, young people come to me and they're like, I don't know what I'm supposed to do next, so what do I do? And I'll say, you need to

actively wait. And they're like, what does that mean? I'm like, well, do the thing that's right in front of you right now until God comes back. And I'm like, well, what does that mean? And they're like, God reveals to you what the next thing is. That's actively waiting. Endure. Occupy until God shows you the next thing. Be 100% where you are until you're not there anymore. Brothers and

sisters, we're on earth right now. Do we have an eternal focus? I hope so, because otherwise we can't endure earth. We should have the eternal focus, but you should be here as long as you're here. And while you're here, get the word of God to as many different people as you can in as many different ways as you can, because that's the great commission. He says,

this gospel should continue to be preached and will be preached to all the world, and then the end will come. You know why he tells them that? Because I'm reminded of what God tells Ezekiel in the book of Ezekiel. He said, judgment is my strange work. It's my will that none should perish, but that all should come to eternal life. God's greatest desire is for as many people as possible to accept his word,

so that they can become a part of the kingdom. It's his desire that none should perish. That doesn't mean everybody's going to come to salvation. This is not a global salvation message. Don't worry, everybody's going to end up getting there. But it is the understanding that it's his heart for the entire world. His heart is for everybody to come to know him. And he wants that heart to get into you, so that you can show that heart

to all of the people that are around you. The only way that that heart can get into you is if, first of all, you actually know Jesus as your Savior. That's where it begins. But then it's when you open up your heart and say, Lord, fill me with that love that you need for me to have, so that my love will not grow cold. And it's amazing how he will ruin your life with a burden for all of the lost people in the world.

It will be the best way your life has ever been ruined, because pretty soon you won't be able to see the love that you need for me. And it's amazing how he will ruin your life with a burden for all of them. You'll see some knucklehead make a bad decision and make fun of them. You'll see some knucklehead make a bad decision, and it'll break your heart. And you'll say, it now hurts so bad

that I have to do something, because that's the heart of the Savior. Amen? Let's all stand.

Jesus is coming back soon. I do believe it. Soon on his timetable, not on my timetable. But brothers and sisters, let's look for it, and let's be ready. Father, we come before you, and I thank you for the time that we've had in your word this morning. And Lord, as always, I pray that only the things of you would remain. Anything of me would fall by the wayside.

Anything of the flesh would fall by the wayside. And Lord, that you would continue to be the focus of our hearts, of our minds, and of our souls. Lord, lead us and guide us in you, I pray. Be with us as we go out from this place, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Not be afraid, but trust you, and let your love reign, in Jesus' name. Amen? Lord bless y'all.