I am, amen.
Matthew 24.
I don't know if that song encourages you but I want you to
be encouraged today.
We are talking about God coming back.
Christ coming back.
And if it's your first time here with us, we are glad that
you are here.
And if you don't have a lot of context for Christianity and
what the Bible says, you may be really surprised by what we
talk about today.
We believe that Jesus came and that he wasn't just a man that he
was God.
That he lived a perfect life.
He died on the cross.
Not to pay for any sin that he had done because he never sinned.
He died to pay for your sin in mind.
And he resurrected from death.
And now he lives at the right hand of the father.
And to not believe that is to not be a Christian.
I hope you are not surprised that we believe that.
We believe that that historically happened.
And we believe that that's where he is now.
The other thing we believe is that he said, I am coming back.
And he talked about that.
And that's really what we have been starting in this series.
It started last week.
It continues today.
And then it will finish up next week.
We studied this question that the disciples of Jesus asked the
Jesus right at the end of his life.
They didn't quite know what was going to be at the end of his
life.
Even though he told them.
And I will show you why here in a second.
And I won't preach the whole sermon.
But if you weren't here last week, I will give you some of the
background.
There is this question that they ask.
Let's see if this works here.
Oh, yeah, there it is.
Okay.
Here is the question.
This is the disciples coming to Jesus as he sat upon the
Mount of Olives.
The disciples came unto him privately saying, tell us when
shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming
and of the end of the world.
Now, last week, we established some things.
What we established was the context of this question.
The disciples were Jesus' disciples.
And they long for what we long for.
We all long for justice.
Do you long for that?
For wrong to be made right.
Who votes for no more pain?
And no more suffering.
And no more death.
And every worldview has to contend with that.
We live in a world where all those things exist.
And the Bible gives a reason why they exist.
They exist because sin under the world and death by sin.
Because of sin, the earth was cursed.
Because Adam sinned, we all sinned.
And that's where we find ourselves.
And these Jewish people, the disciples long for Jesus coming
back.
And they had a view of, sorry, they long for, and I say Jesus
coming back, they long for the Messiah's coming.
See, they had a view of eschatology, ology meaning study,
eschat, eschat in that coming from eschaton or last things.
They had a view of last things.
Their view of last things was that there was a Messiah that
was coming.
This Messiah that was coming was a Jewish Messiah.
He was made to sit on David's throne for all eternity.
And when he came back, he was going to make wrong right.
We're going to see that in some verses that we see today.
They believe that.
But what it did not include is they did not believe anything
about the rapture.
I showed you last week how that when Paul talked about the
rapture, this catching away of the bride of Christ, all who
named the name of Christ and the age that we live in.
That was a mystery, something that was previously not revealed.
It wasn't revealed to Daniel or to Isaiah or to any of the
prophets that came before.
And so they didn't know much about that either.
They also didn't understand what the church was supposed to be.
They didn't understand that Jesus was leaving.
There would be a time, what they did believe was that there
was a time before this Messiah came called Jacob's trouble.
Jacob, if you came to Sunday school today, you found out that
Jacob is the name of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
We learned today that the man who Jesus wrestled, God, named
him not Jacob, the sea versus the planter anymore.
He named him Israel, wrestles with God.
And so Israel, this God who came, there's this thing that's
called Jacob's trouble and it was a time where there would be
tribulation, difficulty, and then the Messiah would come and
make all the wrong right and sit on David's throne for an
everlasting kingdom.
And that before he came in this time of Jacob's trouble, there
would be this forerunner that would come like Elijah, the
prophet Elijah, who would usher in the Messiah's coming.
Now what they had viewed in his ministry was that he was
Messiah.
In fact, Jesus claimed to be Messiah.
He claimed to be God.
He allowed them to call him the Christ and he proved himself to
be God because he did all kinds of incredible things.
He healed the lame and the sick and raised the dead and he
just did all these amazing things.
And then if you think about when this particular question was
asked here in Matthew 24, leading right up until that time,
they had seen him do things like be on the donkey in a
triumphal entry coming into Jerusalem, which was prophesied
that would happen.
And people all around him going, Hosanna, save us now we pray.
Son of David, they were claiming, hey, this might be our
Messiah, come to take out Rome.
To help us with the tribulation that we are in now.
That's what they were hoping for.
That's what the disciples saw.
Then they saw him go into the temple and flip over tables.
They saw him, that was like right after that.
Later they saw him argue with the people in the temple.
He had this authority because he's a Messiah.
They had seen him call him the sea.
So I mean, some people in the temple aren't no problem.
Just how my Alabama came out there.
And so there's their question.
Okay, Jesus, you're the Messiah.
You're supposed to sit on the throne of David.
When are you coming?
And the word coming that they used is not like coming like
grandma and granddad are on their way or Santa Claus is coming
to town.
He's not here.
He's not, he's going to be here.
Coming the way they're asking it is the word perugio.
We're going to see that in a minute.
And it means when are you going to sit on your throne and get
rid of all that's wrong?
And institute what's going to happen here in Jerusalem.
And then Jesus gives them an answer.
That's why I left you last week and I said, I believe this is
going to happen in the future.
And we have a clue in Jesus' answer as to when this would
happen.
Obviously through the disciples it was future because they're
saying when is this going to happen in the future?
I believe for us now it's still in the future.
And I'm going to show you why.
There's four clues.
In Jesus' answer that speak to when.
When are you coming?
When are you going to perugio?
When are you going to establish your kingdom?
And these clues that I'm showing you start with the beginning.
If you look at verse 8, everybody there in Matthew 24.
In Matthew 24 I'm not going to show you yet.
I'll show you as we go.
But if you, you'll get lost if you don't look in your Bible.
You got a Bible?
That's what we use here, the Bible.
Aren't you glad?
Me too.
Jesus says if you look at verse 4, take heed that no man
deceive you, for many shall come in my name saying I am Christ
and shall deceive many.
You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars.
See that you be not troubled.
Now it is my goal today that you can walk out of here not
troubled.
Anybody for that?
You guys see the news last night?
Iran's attacking Israel.
A lot of crazy stuff happening.
And so go down to verse 8.
He names other things, wars and rumors of wars.
We'll talk more about this today.
And then he says this word here in verse 8.
All these are the beginning of sorrow or sorrow's actually.
My PowerPoint's wrong.
The beginning of sorrow's.
The word is Odin.
That's the Greek word.
Odin means birth pains.
Traveil.
Can you remember that?
Say birth pains.
Okay, remember that.
Then he says that the beginning of birth pains.
Number 2, you have a middle.
If you get down to verse 15, it's not obvious that it's the
middle.
It's not first obvious, but it is in the middle here.
Verse 15, when you therefore shall see the abomination of
desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy
place.
What's the holy place?
It's in Jerusalem, but it's also in the temple.
There's the holy place, the holy of holies.
Who so neat readeth, let him understand.
Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.
So he says, here in the middle, you're going to see this thing
called the abomination of desolation, and that was spoken of
by Daniel the prophet.
Okay, so we'll come back to that.
So you have a beginning, you have a middle.
Then you have an end.
If you get down to verse 21, he's saying to them in verses 16
through 19, when you see that abomination of desolations you
need to run, you need to flee.
Why?
Verse 21, for then shall be great tribulation.
Say great tribulation.
Great tribulation.
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not
since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever
shall be.
What is he saying?
It's going to be bad.
There's not a time before it that's going to be worse, that's
ever been worse, there's not going to be a time after it that
will ever be worse.
Why?
Jesus is coming back.
And then he says in number four, he talks about
perugia, if you go down to, I didn't put the verse on here.
Verse 27, verse 26, wherefore if they say unto you, behold, he
is in the desert talking about Christ, because of these
false Christ that are in verse 24, we go to verse 24, for
there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and shall
show great signs and wonders and so much that if it were
possible they shall deceive the very elect, behold I have told
you before, wherefore if they shall say unto you, behold he is
in the desert, who is in the desert?
Christ.
If you say Christ in the desert, go not forth, behold he is in
the secret changers, believe it not.
Verse 27, for as the lightning cometh out of the east.
I just shocked some of you.
How does lightning happen?
Is it slow?
You're fast as lightning.
As lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the
west, so shall the coming, same word, perugia, same word is in
the question, when shall your coming be?
When does it happen?
Like lightning.
He's not over in the cave somewhere, he's coming back
like lightning, east to west.
So shall the coming of the sun of man be?
And then it says immediately, verse 29, after the tribulation
of those days, when is it, when is this, what's about to happen?
Is it before the tribulation?
It's after the tribulation of those days.
Shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light
and the stars shall fall from heaven, the powers of the heaven
shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the son of
man in heaven.
Son of man is a term used in Daniel to talk about this coming
ancient of days.
He who is from the ancient is talking about the Messiah and
is talking about Jesus.
It's a claim to deity.
Then after the tribulation, he shall appear, the sign of the
son of man in heaven.
So you have a beginning, Odin, you have a middle, this
abomination of desolation, I'll come right back to that.
Then you have an end, there shall be, for then shall be great
tribulation, this last part.
And then after the tribulation you have the coming, the
perugia, Christ making wrong right.
Who's for that?
That's what's happening.
Now, we have two other places I want to show you.
Daniel 9.
If you look at this spoken of by Daniel the prophet, how many
of you know Daniel?
He has a book in the Old Testament.
Holy Spirit wrote it, he used Daniel, it's in the Old
Testament, Daniel was a prophet.
And this abomination of desolation that he spoke, speaking
of, that is the only prophet, not the only prophecy, but one of
the prophecies that he directly quotes, he brings up here and
that's found in Daniel 9.24.
Are you with me?
Anybody confused yet?
I hope I don't confuse you.
I'm going to give you a lot today, having fun?
Some of you are.
Daniel 9.24, here's what it says, 70 weeks are determined upon
thy people and upon thy holy city, who are God's people?
The Jews, what's their holy city?
Jerusalem, you're getting it right.
To finish the transgression, to make an end of sins and to
make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, who's for those things?
Who wants an end to sin and an everlasting righteousness?
Also, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy and to
anoint the most holy.
So what do we find here?
There are 70 weeks, I'm going to tell you now, there are weeks of
years, I'll show you why in a minute.
70 weeks, how many, 70 times 7, a week is how many days?
Seven days, there's seven weeks of years, so there's 70 times
7, how many is that?
490.
70 weeks of years, who is it about?
Thy people, Israel and thy city, Jerusalem.
Why?
Why is this happening?
Why is there 70 weeks of years?
What is he talking about?
What's the point of it?
To end sins, to reconcile iniquity, to bring in everlasting
righteousness.
You know what that means?
Righteousness that won't end.
No more sin.
I'm excited.
Some of you are going to keep sinning, that's why you're not
amen in me.
It's going to be amazing.
And to anoint the most holy, who's the most holy?
Jesus, that's who we know now, it's this Messiah that's going to
sit on David's throne, anointed as king.
King on David's throne in the holy city, Jerusalem.
Verse 25, know therefore and understand that from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem
unto the Messiah, the Prince shall be seven weeks and
three score and two weeks.
Okay, that's kind of strange.
Strange wording, okay.
Daniel's writing, you guys remember Daniel, where is Daniel
in his life?
He's in a place called Babylon.
Why was he in Babylon?
Because God's people had been taken and put in exile in
Babylon.
Are you with me?
And he's saying 70 weeks, first seven weeks from the
commandment to restore and build Jerusalem, did that ever
happen by the way?
After Babylon was Jerusalem restored.
Have you guys ever heard of Nehemiah?
What happened when Nehemiah?
They rebuilt the walls in 52 days.
Later on they go back and rebuild the temple.
So he says there's seven weeks and then there's three score
and two weeks.
So you have seven, 70 weeks, sorry, seven weeks.
You see it?
Seven weeks.
How many, seven times seven is 49.
Three score and two weeks, a score is 20.
Okay, so 20 times three is what?
60 plus two plus seven.
That's 69 weeks.
Did I confuse anybody?
Okay.
You have seven weeks and then you have three score and two
weeks.
The street shall be built again in the wall and even in trouble
sometimes.
Stay with me.
The commandment to Messiah will go here, verse 26.
This is right in the road, 24, 25, 26.
And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off.
What does that mean?
He'll be killed.
But not for himself.
And all God's people said.
Not for himself.
And the people of the prince that shall come, that's talking
about the antichrist, shall destroy the city and the
sanctuary.
The people of the prince that shall come are, I believe, the
Romans.
Because the Romans in 8070 destroy the temple.
The Bible prophesied it and it came true already.
Is that impressive?
Cool.
I'm glad you like it.
And the end thereof shall be with flood and unto the end of
war, desolations are determined.
So you have the commandment to Messiah shall be seven.
Then from the commandment to go restore.
Until it's restored, that's 49 years.
Then from there to when Messiah comes, it's 62 weeks.
So there's still one week left.
69 of the...how many years are there?
How many weeks of years?
There's 70 weeks.
69 happen until the Messiah comes.
The people of the prince of that city shall come and destroy it.
And he, the prince that shall come, here it is, verse 27, shall
confirm the covenant with many for one week.
How many weeks are left?
One.
So this prince that shall come will make a covenant with many, a
peace treaty for one week.
How long is one week?
Seven years.
And in the midst of the week, what's the midst of one week?
Three and a half.
Are you with me?
He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease and for
the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate.
Remember what Jesus said?
Look in your Bibles in Matthew 24.
When you therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken
by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, then let them
which be in the mountains flee.
So you have a seven year, a 70th week and halfway through the
70 week, in the midst of the week, there's an abomination that
desolates.
Now we already know what that is like because it's happened in
history when a guy named Antiochus Epiphanes went into the
temple and sacrificed a pig in the temple and stuffed pork down
the, down the mouths of the priests.
And it desecrated that temple and they didn't use it anymore.
That's the kind of thing that happens here.
That's what's prophesied.
He shall make it desolate, desecrated, unusable.
And the Bible says that in chapter 12 verse 11, different
place and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken
away and the abomination that make it desolate set up, there
shall be 1,290 days.
So from the abomination that desolates in the middle of that
70 week, 70th week, there's 1,290 days which is 3.5 years plus
30 days.
The Bible is amazing.
Okay.
I want to show you a graph.
This is old school, man.
Got to have Clarence Larkin put this together.
You have here a picture of David's 70 weeks.
There's 70 weeks.
You like my green thing here, by the way?
70 weeks.
You have seven weeks, 49 years from the building of Jerusalem.
This is the prophecy starts here.
Daniel does it, 49 weeks.
62 weeks, 434 years.
That actually happened.
This is halfway, this has already been fulfilled harshly.
This is amazing.
The time works out.
Then at the 69th week, the Messiah is cut off, he's dead.
This is the part, this church week, the gap between the 69th
and 70th week is the part that Daniel didn't know.
Then you have Daniel's 70th week, which is called Tribulation
by Jesus, and in the midst of the week, you have the
abomination of desolations.
Okay.
You see how I did my math?
Okay.
I'll give you the notes on the website.
If you want to answer questions, that's pretty cool.
So you have 49 years, 62 weeks, seven weeks and 62 weeks.
Then you have Daniel's 70th week, which is one last week that
is seven years.
It's what's called the Tribulation.
The first half is what Jesus was referring to when he says this
is the beginning of sorrows.
This are the birth pains.
So when Jesus, that's what we're going to talk about today,
birth pains.
There's a lady in here, I'm not going to say her name, but she's
going to have a kid this week.
She is not happy about this sermon.
Birth pains.
Right?
That's the first part, and then you have the second part.
So do you see how that the 70 weeks timing corresponds exactly
with what Daniel said.
There's going to be the first part, the beginning of sorrows,
then there's going to be the abomination of tribulation,
then there's going to be great tribulation, and at the end of
it, Jesus is coming back.
He's coming back to restore his kingdom.
It's an actual Jewish kingdom where he rules and reigns over
everything on the throne of David, and he makes wrong right.
It's an amazing thing.
So in Matthew chapter 24, so here's what, back to my point,
this corresponds exactly with Daniel.
There's the beginning of sorrows, the birth pains that happened
in the first three and a half years.
Then there's the abomination that desolates.
I'll talk about that actually some today and a bunch next week.
Then you have great tribulation, the last three and a half years.
You don't want to be here.
The last three and a half years.
And then you have the coming, Jesus coming to set up his
throne.
So today, here's my big idea.
That's my introduction.
And I'm going to read it to you.
Matthew 24, 3-14, we see signs.
What Jesus called birth pains, the sorrows that will occur just
before Jesus' second coming.
And by second coming, I mean what happens at the end of the
great tribulation.
Not his coming in rapture to call us home, but his coming to set
up his kingdom.
All of it as part of that coming.
Here it is.
Now here's three truths.
You need to know about birth pains.
Anybody here ever been born?
The birth pains aren't for the kid, it's for the mom, right?
And the birth pains, this is how birth pains happen.
I've seen it, my wife's been pregnant three times.
We had three kids.
I've seen her have birth pains.
It always happened the same way.
The birth pains happen at the delivery, not throughout the
pregnancy.
Are you with me?
It happens at the end.
And all the ladies said, aren't you glad it didn't happen the
whole time?
It happens at the end.
They also happen with ever increasing frequency.
With Megan and we were at, she was starting to feel like, okay,
it could be the time.
And at my pastor's church, let's go to Cracker Barrel.
And we went and had Cracker Barrel.
And here it comes.
And then we had, was that Milana?
That was Audrey.
Audrey was a Cracker Barrel, baby.
Okay.
They were less frequent.
Less frequent.
More frequent.
Eat the French toast, we got to go.
Right?
From less frequent to more frequent.
Also, from less intense to more intense.
Now here's the good news.
A lot of people have interpreted these birth pains as what
happens before the tribulation.
Okay.
As what happened like right now could be it.
I believe that the rapture is going to happen before the
tribulation.
There's lots of reasons to believe that.
I'm going to give you some of them today.
But the point is what you're seeing now is setting up the
world.
What's happening now is setting up the world, I believe, for
what's going to happen in the tribulation.
Okay.
For instance, Israel just got their land back.
And the last, they've always had their land.
But my point is they just are starting to gather back in their
land.
You guys know that that's happened recently, right?
God's doing something.
Do I know the dates and the times?
I do not.
But right now there's people going to war with Israel.
There's something to pay attention to.
It's not, I'm not describing that.
I'm describing, these are like the Braxton Hicks stuff.
This is the stuff before the actual birth pains.
Does that make sense?
So you have an ever-increasing intensity.
That's exactly what you see in these birth pains.
We can understand the beginning of the tribulation by
understanding six birth pains described in Matthew 24, one
through 10 that happened in that first, that happens throughout
the whole tribulation.
The tribulation is like the birth pains from less frequent to
more frequent and growing in intensity.
What are some of the birth pains?
Number one, this is Jesus' answer.
Finally we get to Jesus' answer.
Verse 4 and 5, first we have deceptions by false Christ.
Here's what it says.
And Jesus answered and said unto them, take heed that no man
deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ.
Are they successful?
Yes they are.
They absolutely are.
Isn't that what it says?
And shall deceive many.
He said you don't be deceived, there's a bunch that are going to
be deceived.
There are people that say I am Christ and a lot of people believe
in it.
The one person that we know of is the prime example of that is
the anti-Christ.
There will always be false teachers.
But he's not referring to those who are here now, he's referring
to ones in the future.
This will be a time of absolute chaos.
The Holy Spirit will be gone, the church will be gone.
So he says blepo or be aware.
These false teachers will be empowered by Satan, the anti-Christ
and the false prophet to do supernatural signs.
People will be looking for help because of all the calamity.
The anti-Christ will be the ultimate example of these false
Christ.
Now for each one of these birth pains that Jesus talks about,
there's a correlation to content in the book of Revelation.
Have you guys ever heard the book of Revelation?
In our Bible it's at the end, right?
The end of the Bible.
The book of Revelation can be complicated in some aspects,
but it's really simple in other ways.
The first three chapters have the church in there.
In fact, he talks to the churches that are in there.
In chapters 4 and 5 you go to heaven.
And this is just a summary of the book of Revelation.
I could certainly go into a lot more.
In chapters 6 through 19, it describes the great tribulation.
At the end of the tribulation, Christ comes back on a white
horse and demolishes the anti-Christ, the false prophet,
and all the nations of the earth that go forth to fight against
him.
And here's what's amazing, Christ does all the fighting.
And he wins.
This is amazing.
Chapter 20 is about the 1,000 years reign of Christ on the
earth.
The word for 1,000, millennium is found seven times in the
chapter.
At the end of the 1,000 year reign we have a great white thrown
judgment.
Death and hell are cast into the lake of fire.
In chapter 21 and 22 we have a new heaven and a new earth.
So in chapter 6 where it starts about that great tribulation,
Daniel's 70th week, what Jesus talks about here, the beginning
of trouble is described through the seal judgments, the bull
judgments, and the trumpet judgments.
So when Jesus says, you want to know about the end, let me tell
you about the end.
And he starts talking about the tribulation.
And he said the tribulation will be like these birth pains and
those birth pains are correlated.
It's amazing right along with what John reveals later in
Revelation as these judgments.
So you have the false Christ, you see that in Matthew 24.
The first thing he says, be careful there's going to be
false Christ.
Right?
Revelation 6 verse 1 and 2, we'll put it on the screen.
And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard as
it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying,
come and see.
And I saw behold a white horse and he that sat on him had a bow
and a crown was given unto him and he went forth conquering and
to conquer.
So you have this guy, I believe this is speaking of the
anti-Christ, you'll see why here in a minute.
That leads to birth pain number two, disputes and warring among
the nations.
You have deception by false Christ.
Then you have disputes among the nations.
Back to Matthew 24.6 and 7 and he shall hear of wars and
rumors of wars.
See that you be not troubled.
For all these things must come to pass but the end is not yet.
So these things are happening at the beginning of the
tribulation.
For nations shall rise against nation and kingdom against
kingdom.
You will be hearing is what he says.
And he says, you shall hear of wars and you will be hearing
and continually hear about it.
It happens constantly.
Wars and rumors of wars.
Every kind of warfare imaginable.
This will be global in its influence.
Some may say this is already happening or has happened.
It seems like a lot of war.
But it's not going to be at this level.
It's going to be greater in level.
To a degree not yet seen.
There will be a massive amount of blood shed and carnage.
This has to happen.
The end is not yet.
Daniel and Revelation give us some insight into this.
Back to Daniel 11.
And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at
him.
I will give you some background.
The hymn that is talked about here is this anti-Christ.
This prince that shall come.
And the king of the north shall come against him.
And the king of the south push at him.
And the king of the north shall come against him.
And enter into the countries and shall overflow and fast over.
And enter into the glorious land.
And many countries shall be overthrown.
But these shall escape out of his hand.
Even eat him.
Moab and the chief of the children of Amnon.
And the chief of the north shall be in the treasures of gold and
silver.
And all the precious things of Egypt and the Libyans and the
Ethiopians shall be in his steps.
But tidings out of the east and north shall trouble him.
And go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to make away
many.
And plant the tabernacle of this palace between the seas of the
glorious holy mountain.
And come to his end and none shall help him.
And the king of Egypt who goes to war with all these people as he
is covenanted with Israel.
Israel needs protection.
So that's where he makes this covenant with them for one week.
And in the midst of the week he shall betray them.
Here you have north, south, east all going against the
Antichrist.
And he's winning.
And then at the end he's defeated.
Revelation describes the seals that which happened to be in
alignment with these.
And he says here that this one that's coming is going to go
forth to conquer verse 3 when he had opened the second seal and
come and see.
And there went out another horse that was red and power was
given to him that sat upon to take peace from the earth and
kill one another and there was given to him a great sword.
So Jesus says there's going to be false Christ and there's going
to be a bunch of war.
That's exactly what Daniel says and that's what Revelation says.
And here's verse 3, verse 4, verse 1, author.
Birth pain number 3.
Isn't this just fun, exciting?
So encouraging.
I'll tell you in a minute how you can be encouraged by this.
Birth pain number 3, devastation throughout the world.
And there shall be famines it says in verse 7.
And pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places.
All these are the beginning of sorrows.
And there's a lot of things.
A scarcity of food.
The prices for food go way up.
There's plagues, diseases of all kinds happening.
Earthquakes, the word for earthquakes here is seismos.
It's where we get the word seismic.
Seemed to happen all at one time but not all in the same place.
Luke 21 says in the great earthquakes shall be in diverse
places, famines, pestilences and fearful sites and great
signs shall be from heaven.
And look at the fourth seal.
Verse 5.
The third seal and then the fourth seal.
And when you open the third seal I heard the beast say come and
see and behold a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of
balances in his hand and I heard a voice in the midst of the four
beasts say a measure of wheat for a penny and three measure of
barley for a penny and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
And when he had opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the
fourth beast say come and see and I looked and behold a pale
horse and his name that sat on him was, what was it?
Death.
And he followed with and hell followed with him and power
was given him over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the
sword and with hunger and with death and with the beast of the
earth.
Does this seem to correlate?
What revelation says and what Jesus said, yes.
Can you imagine a fourth of the people just dead?
Crazy.
You see in the sixth seal and I behold, Revelation 6.12 and I
behold when he had opened the sixth seal low there was a great
earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the
moon became his blood and the stars of heaven fell into the
earth even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is
shaken of a mighty wind and the heaven departed to a scroll
with his rolled together and every mountain and island were
moved out of their places.
The seventh seal that is open and the seals that open up the
trumpet judgments that blow in the seven angels just as an
example here, eight, seven.
The first angel sounded, followed hail and fire mingled with
blood and cast upon the earth and the third part of the trees
were burned up and all the green grass was burned up.
Global warming.
It's a joke.
Verse eight.
And the second angel sounded and as it were a great mountain
burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the
sea became blood.
And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea had
life died.
Third part of the ships were destroyed.
The third angel sounded and fell a great start from heaven,
burning as it were as a lamp and it fell upon the third part of
the rivers and upon the fountains of waters.
The name of the star was wormwood and the third part of the
waters became as wormwood and many died of the waters because
they were made bitter.
And the third part of the sun was smitten and the third part of
the moon, third part of the stars so as the third part of them
that was darkened and the day showed not for a third part of
it and the night likewise.
But remember, all of these are the beginnings of sorrows.
Not fun.
Last couple of things.
Birth pain number four.
Deliverance of believers to tribulation.
This is what Jesus says, verse 9...
Now one of the things that people say about this passage is
to say, if it's future, why is he talking to the disciples as if
they will be there?
Are you with me?
If it's way in the future, if it's past us, why is it past us?
Why is it past us?
Is it way in the future, if it's past us, why is he talking to
the disciples as if they would be there?
This happens all the time in the Old Testament.
Prophets saying something will happen in 49 years or 200 years
or 400 years and speaking to people in front of them as if
they are going to be there.
They are not there.
But it's done as it is said to have been done.
and there will be people in the last days that will read this.
Does that make sense?
He says this about what's gonna happen.
There's gonna be people who are believers,
people who believe in these last days.
That's part of what he's trying to do.
He says to them, they will deliver you up to be afflicted
and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations
for my name's sake.
Delivered here as a police kind of military sense to it.
People who believed in Christ during this time
will be persecuted.
The church is gonna be raptured
and during this time of tribulation,
many believers will be made,
but many believers will be delivered up to be afflicted.
You say, is that what it says in Revelation?
Check this out, Revelation 6-9.
And when he had opened the fifth seal,
this is what Jesus said and what it was written by,
perfectly aligned.
Verse nine, when he opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar the souls of them
that were slain for the word of God
and for the testimony which they held.
And they cried with a loud voice saying,
how long, O Lord, holy and true,
thus thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth.
And right robes were given unto every one of them
and it was said unto them that they should rest
for a little season until their fellow servants
also in their brethren that should be killed
as they were should be fulfilled.
So you have people, if you become a believer in this time,
it's very, very likely that it will take your life to do that.
Birth Pane number five, defection of false believers.
Verse 10, and then shall many be offended
and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.
See, once the church is gone,
the Holy Spirit removed and difficulty grows,
there will be very little incentive to pretend
to be truly a Christ follower.
People will turn on each other and hate each other.
There will be a high cost to living the truth
and this will cause people to not pay that cost
anymore revealing that they were never really believers
in the first place.
This will be exacerbated by the false teaching going on.
In verse 11, he says, many false prophets shall rise
and deceive many.
With the church and the Holy Spirit gone,
there will be no breaks on people's morality.
Compassion and decency will be smaller and smaller.
That's why it says in verse 12,
and because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold.
Those who believe and are converted will show
that they're truly Christ followers
as they will endure till the end.
Either their own martyrdom or second coming.
That's why Jesus says verse 13,
but he that shall endure until the end shall be saved.
The same shall be saved.
This is not saying that they will be saved to eternal life
because they endured the tribulation.
It's saying that those who are faithful to God
are showing that they are saved.
And that leads to this last point.
And I have it in your notes as a birth pain,
but this really isn't a birth pain.
This is just what happens at the time.
Number six, there's the declaration of the gospel
of the kingdom to the whole world.
Here's what it says.
Verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom.
What's the good news?
That Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He was buried in Rosigand the third day for the scriptures,
for our sins according to the scriptures,
and that he's coming back to establish his kingdom.
Isn't that awesome?
And so what they're literally saying,
what was said by Elijah, sorry, by that one who was like Elijah,
John the Baptist, prepare you the way the Lord,
and repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Just a couple of things, I'll really quickly go into them.
Revelation 14 talks about this.
I messed you up, Steve, don't touch it.
Okay, you can touch it, go back, go back.
There it is.
Revelation 14, six, as I saw another angel
flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel
to preach unto them, that dwell on the earth,
to every nation, and kindred in tongue,
and people saying with a loud voice, fear God
and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come.
This is what the Old Testament called the day of the Lord.
He's coming back, you keep wanting to fight him,
but he's coming back, Jesus is coming back.
He came back the first time, he came the first time
as a baby in the manger, the next time he's coming,
like a warrior or king to take out his enemies
and establish justice.
And what this angel is saying, this messenger,
fear God, here comes judgment, worship him that made heaven
and earth and sea in the fountains of waters.
This is the message of the kingdom.
There's two witnesses that come.
I won't go long into that.
It's in Revelation 11.
They are used, I can go into that,
we'll talk about that next week.
There's a testimony of elders,
there's 144,000 Jews, 12 from each tribe that are redeemed
and they go and they proclaim and as they proclaim,
some people believe and then they're killed.
And Revelation 7.1 tells us about some of those people.
It says, after these things I saw four angels,
go to Revelation 7, Steve, next one I believe, yep.
After these things I saw four angels standing
in the four corners of the earth,
holding the four winds of the earth that they should,
the winds should not blow on the earth
nor the sea nor any tree.
And I saw another angel ascending from the east
having a seal of the living God
and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels,
to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.
Saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees,
till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads.
And I heard them of which were sealed
and they were sealed 144,000, all the tribes of Israel.
Then in verse 13, go down to verse 13, next slide.
And one of the elders saying to me,
what are these which are arrayed in white robes?
And whence came they?
And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest,
and he said to me, these are they
which came out of great tribulation
and have washed their robes and made them white.
Here it is, in the blood of the lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple.
And he that sits on the throne shall dwell among them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,
neither shall the sun light on them nor any heat.
For the lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them and shall lead them unto the fountain,
the living fountain of waters, and God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes.
Even in the time of great tribulation
leading up to Christ's return and judgment,
what is his desire?
That people repent.
You may be listening to me today
and you're talking about seals and judgments
and pestilences.
You sound like that guy with the sandwich board,
repent like the crazy guy in the...
And what I'm trying to show you is that
a bunch of this has already been fulfilled.
There's a bunch that's been fulfilled.
He said he would come the first time and he came.
69 weeks have already happened.
There's one more week coming.
He came the first time not to condemn,
but to give his life a ransom for many.
The birth pain that's coming are just showing you
that eventually what's gonna be delivered is judgment
and then peace.
And everlasting righteousness.
A king on a throne forever.
You don't wanna go through this.
There is now therefore no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
The good news is you don't have to go through this.
You don't have to.
You know what you should do?
Jesus tells us in this passage,
go down real quick.
How do you respond to this sermon?
Matthew 24, 42.
There's two words.
Two phrases.
Watch therefore.
Verse 42.
Verse 44, therefore be ye also ready.
Watch, be ready.
Watch and be ready.
What should we do?
Watch and be ready.
Watch therefore for you know not the hour
your Lord doth come,
but know this that if the good men of the house
were known in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched
and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.
Therefore be also ready for in such an hour
as you think not the son of man, Perusia.
He's coming back.
He's gonna make all wrong, right?
You say if the rapture happens,
and I don't get saved,
and I don't go, can I get saved?
Why would you take the chance?
Why?
Tomorrow's not the day of salvation.
Today's the day of salvation.
Is there any way that I could kind of experience some of this?
That's dumb.
At the risk of sounding crazy.
Repent and believe the kingdom of God is at hand.
Watch and be ready.
Here's the good news.
He's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
And today you can call on the name of the Lord to be saved.
Would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?