You're seated.
Get in your Bibles with me this morning.
Who here loves the Bible?
I love the Bible, grab it.
And go to Matthew chapter 24,
it's where we've already read this morning.
And I'm excited about wrapping up today
this series called Future Things.
We have a Bible that is so trustworthy
that you can read it,
knowing that it has a track record of fulfilled prophecy
and knowing that there is prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
And I want you to know, it may seem weird to you
if it's your first time or first time in a long time.
But Jesus is coming back.
It was predicted He would come the first time.
It's predicted that He's coming another time.
And we're gonna see that He's going to do that today.
Let me tell you a story.
And it's a story you may have heard before.
In fact, I've talked a little bit about it
the last couple of weeks.
But I want you to put yourself, not in 2024,
but in 80, 30.
Put yourself back when Jesus was walking the earth, okay?
And I want you to imagine yourself being a Jewish person
when Jesus was on the earth.
And here's what you would believe
if you were the typical Jewish person.
You lived in Israel and in living in Israel,
you were under the occupation of the Romans.
And everything that you are allowed to do
is at the pleasure of the Romans.
Life has been really hard living under their occupation.
Living each day to make your daily bread
is the reality of life.
You work enough today to get enough money today
to have food for today, right?
That's how you're living.
You live in poverty by modern day American standards.
And as a Jew under this occupation,
you long for the days of David.
You want to know who David was?
David was a king.
He was the ultimate king who wrote many of the songs
that you would worship to God.
He was called the Psalms.
And by the way, we're taking you out of the story now.
Next week we start a series in the Psalms.
And next week's service will be unlike any service
you've probably ever been to.
We're gonna preach and then sing and preach and sing and preach.
I'm gonna preach and then you'll sing, okay?
But it's gonna be an amazing time where we praise the Lord
and we look forward to what he's doing.
So come back next week.
We're actually gonna sing the Bible.
It's gonna be great.
But these people, back to the story,
if you're in that first century,
occupied by the Romans, you remember a king named David.
And you long for that, those days.
David was this good king who had a heart for God.
And this is more than just a longing for days gone by.
You know that God said that there was a Messiah that's coming.
And this Messiah that's coming will sit on David's throne
to establish justice and righteousness forever.
Which means no more Rome.
It means no more being under that occupation.
You also know that the coming of Messiah
would be preceded by an Elijah-like figure,
this prophet of Elijah before.
So this Elijah-like figure is gonna come back
in a time that will be a time of tribulation,
a time of what's called in Jeremiah, Jacob's trouble.
And as a Jew, you revere the Old Testament prophets.
You know that they tell of one who will come
and will make Jerusalem the center of the world.
When you begin to experience at this time,
then is the ministry of a guy that seems to fit
the description of Elijah, the forerunner to the Messiah.
And his name was John the Baptist.
And John the Baptist ate weird stuff
and he dressed really weird.
And his message was this,
repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.
And so you are kind of intrigued by this guy
who seems like Elijah used to be,
who's coming as a forerunner.
And we say, okay, if he's here,
and what John would say is, I'm not the Christ.
In fact, there's one that's coming after me
who sandals I'm not worthy to unloose.
I'm not even worthy to be his slave.
And so you're getting kind of excited.
Who is this guy you're trying to point to?
He seems to have the spirit of Elijah, this John the Baptist
and maybe the fulfillment of that prophecy.
Most importantly, this John the Baptist
pointed to a man named Jesus of Nazareth
as the Messiah, the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
As the Old Testament says.
There then was this man named Jesus
who you find out came from Nazareth
but was born in Bethlehem.
And when you find out that he's born in Bethlehem,
you find out, oh, the Messiah is supposed to be born in.
Bethlehem, the house of bread, David city.
That's interesting.
And you find out that this Jesus
was of the house and lineage of David.
And so then I want you to take one more step.
Imagine being one of his disciples.
Imagine being one of those disciples
who believed all that I just told you,
but then had been an eyewitness to everything Jesus said
and did.
His teaching was authoritatively as God.
He taught not as someone who heard from God
but he taught not just like that,
he also taught as God, one with authority.
His authoritative teaching is confirmed by miracles.
They literally saw him do all of these miraculous things
which is also a fulfillment of prophecy
about the Messiah when he comes.
And then you have a discussion with,
I mean, he's healing the sick,
he's making the blind see, he's making the lame walk,
he's even raised multiple people from the dead.
Right, you see that.
You see him calm the sea and you're like, wow, that's crazy.
And then you have a discussion with him
where he asks, who do men say that I am?
And your answer is, okay, what's the public?
They think that you're one of the prophets.
Well, who do you say that I am?
And you hear Peter say, you're the Christ,
the Son of the living God.
You are the Christ, the Messiah,
the Son of the living God.
And he says, flesh and blood didn't tell you that.
You got that from God and by the way, don't tell anybody.
Why would he say not to tell anybody?
And then he says, the reason I don't want you to tell
anybody is because I'm supposed to suffer
and to die at the hands of the religious leaders.
Well, that's kind of weird.
But that's what you hear.
The time of the Passover then is coming, imagine this.
Here comes the Passover, it's coming now,
we were kind of in that time.
And you're on your way to Jerusalem with this Messiah
who's supposed to be a king.
And when you get there, he gives you some instructions.
He tells you to go get a donkey.
He tells you where the donkey's gonna be.
He tells you that there's gonna be people
that ask you about the donkey and you're supposed to say,
the Lord has needed him.
So you take that donkey and then you give it to Jesus
and he gets on there and he rides into Jerusalem
on this donkey, by the way, another fulfillment of prophecy.
And when you ride into Jerusalem on this donkey,
which has this like kingly kind of thing, like atmosphere to it,
all these people start taking palm branches
and laying their coats out in the way
as he goes into Jerusalem and waving these palm fronds
and saying, Hosanna, save us now we pray.
They weren't saying, save us from our sin.
They were saying, save us, deliver us from this occupation.
Save us now we pray.
Are the disciples excited?
And then this Jesus walks into, goes from doing that,
walks into the temple and starts flipping over tables
of all these money changers.
He says, my father's house is meant to be a house of prayer,
but you've made it a din of thieves.
And he starts rolling, you know, turning over tables.
He comes back the next day and the Pharisees,
the religious leaders says, hey,
who's authority did you do that in?
Who gives you the right to go into the temple
and to flip over tables to call it your father's house?
And they're hoping he will say what they think
he's gonna say, my father and I are one.
I'm God.
That's what they wanted to say so that he could,
this is my interpretation, so that they could arrest him.
And he says this to them, who is John the Baptist's authority?
What baptism did he baptize with?
And they wouldn't answer him.
And so he said, I'm not answering you either.
I have the right and the authority not to tell you.
And so does that make the disciples excited?
Yes, it does.
He then pronounces, it's so amazing,
if you get to the end of Matthew chapter 23, go here.
Matthew 23, because those people rejected,
because those religious leaders and the Jews rejected him,
he says this in verse 37 of chapter 23,
oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets
and stoneish them which are sent unto thee.
How often would I have gathered thy children together,
even as a hen, gathered her chicks under your wings,
and ye would not.
Remember before he said, my father's house,
you've made it in a thieves.
Now he says, your house, verse 38, behold,
your house is left unto you,
desolate, unusable, not able to be used for the purpose
in which it's intended.
For I say unto you, here's what he says,
and remember you're a disciple, you're excited about this.
For I say unto you, you shall not see me henceforth
till thou shalt say, blessed is he that,
what's the next word?
Cometh, you shall not see me henceforth till thou shalt say,
blessed is he that, what's the next word?
Cometh in the name of the Lord.
He's referring to an Old Testament prophecy that says
the Messiah is gonna come one day,
and that coming is not just showing up,
it's establishing your kingdom.
And he says, your house is desolate,
there's not gonna be, you're not gonna see me again Jerusalem
until you see me coming to set up my kingdom.
And so, believing all of that and experiencing all of that,
you would come to Jesus with the expectation
and the exact questions that they asked.
These disciples asked Jesus a question,
and there's two parts of this question
that really refer to the same events,
and you'll find that question,
we've attempted to answer it the last two weeks.
Today I'm gonna put it all together.
Hopefully I won't put anyone to sleep.
Okay, so I'm gonna ask Jesus,
okay, and here's what verse three says,
I wanna ask the question.
The question they had is a question you would have,
and Jesus gives us the answer, here's what they said.
And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives,
the disciples came unto him privately saying,
tell us when shall these things be?
Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord,
when are you coming to set up your kingdom?
What shall be the sign of thy coming?
When shall these things be?
What shall be the sign of the coming
and of the end of the world?
The end of the age.
Today it's my intention to help you understand
Jesus' answer by taking everything I've taught you
the last two Sundays and what we will see today
to understand Jesus' answer to this question.
How will we know that Jesus is about to come back
and to rule and reign and to usher in the end of the world?
We can understand Jesus' answer to his disciples
about the sign of his coming and of the end of the age
with these five descriptions.
Here's the first description that really is
an overarching description of the whole answer.
The first description is Daniel's 70th week.
Daniel's 70th week.
The whole tribulation period.
Now hold on, I'll get to it.
If you look at verse 15, when you read Jesus' answer,
he says something interesting.
There's a clue in verse 15 that tells you
that the time to which he is referring
is found in the book of Daniel.
Here's what he says, Matthew 24, 15.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation
spoken of by, what's the next word?
Daniel the prophet, stand in the, next two words,
holy place, who so readeth, let him understand.
The time to which Jesus referred is found described
by Daniel the prophet.
Now we referred to it last week and I went through it quickly.
I want to show you it again to firmly place the answer
in your mind.
It's found in Daniel chapter nine, and I'll put it up
on the screen here.
Daniel chapter nine, verse 24 through 27.
70 weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make a reconciliation
for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness.
How long is the righteousness?
What does everlasting mean?
Forever, never ending.
Who's for that?
Yeah, never ending righteousness.
And to seal up the vision of the prophecy
and to anoint the most holy.
In our English translation, we capitalize holy
because it's talking about somebody.
It's talking about the Messiah who is God.
What's the purpose of the 70 weeks?
To usher in righteousness, to usher in a kingdom,
to anoint a king as, the Messiah as king.
That's what the point of this is.
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 in two weeks, the street shall be built again
and the wall even in troublesome times.
And after three score in two weeks shall Messiah be cut off
but not for himself and the people of the prince
that shall come shall destroy the city in the sanctuary
and at the end thereof shall be with a flood
and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Verse 27, and he shall confirm the covenant with many
for one week.
This is referring to the prince that shall come
from verse 26.
And in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice
of the oblation to cease and for the overspreading
of abominations he shall make it desolate
even until the consummation and that determination
shall be poured upon the desolate.
So you have in verse 27,
this prince that shall come who makes a covenant with many
in the middle of that week he shall cause the sacrifices
to cease, he shall cause the overspreading
of abominations, he shall make it the holy place,
this temple desolate even until the consummation
until the end of all of this week
and the determination shall be poured out to the desolate.
So to make this a lot clearer,
I made a chart, who likes charts?
Okay, here's what he says.
Now some may say, how do you get the math here?
What's the math?
There's 70 weeks, what are we talking about?
Okay, so you have seven weeks.
Now some may say, well how do you know they're years?
I know they're years because most of it's been fulfilled.
The Bible made a prophecy that's been fulfilled.
Is this thing on?
Hello?
The Bible has made prophecies that have already been fulfilled.
That's cool.
Okay, so how do I know they're weeks?
Well, 49 years after this is stated exactly what said would
happen, happened.
That is, the streets are restored, the walls are restored,
the Jerusalem's restored.
Pretty cool, right?
So seven weeks is 49 years to the end of the week.
So seven weeks is 49 years to what?
To the restoration of Jerusalem.
Talked about in verse 25.
What's the status of this prophecy?
It happened.
Awesome.
Am I allowed to dance in church?
My feet didn't move so it's fine.
Okay.
And then he says, three score in two weeks, a score is 20.
Four score in seven years ago.
Our forefathers, what was that?
87 years.
Three score in two weeks is 62 weeks.
Weeks of years, 434 years.
Here's what's amazing.
From the time of the restoration of the temple and all that
till Messiah is cut off, 434 years.
The Bible prophecy was fulfilled.
More dancing, right?
But not for himself.
Here's what I want to tell you today.
Jesus came and he died.
And when he died, he died for your sin and mine.
And if you believe in him, you put your trust in him, you're saved.
And so that's, he died for our sins.
That's what happened.
It happened.
But he says there's one more week where this prince that should come
will make a covenant for one week.
I've already showed you that the weeks are years.
So how many years is this last week?
Seven years.
So there's a coming time of Jacob's trouble.
What's called in Jeremiah.
Seven years that will start with this prince that shall come.
I'll show you this in a minute.
This person who does the abomination of desolation,
he's referred to by Jesus in Matthew 24,
that in the midst of this 70th week, he's going to make a covenant.
I almost fell.
He'll make a covenant with many.
And in the middle of it, he will do this thing called an abomination that desolates.
We'll talk about that more in a minute.
But the first description you've got to understand is Jesus is answering a question
about his coming and he begins to describe the 70th week of Daniel.
Make sense?
Okay.
So that's the first description.
I believe these are weeks of years because that is exactly what happened in the past.
I believe the 70th week didn't happen yet because of two mysteries spoken of in the New Testament.
There's the mystery of the church talked about in Ephesians chapter 5.
When the Bible says mystery is saying something that was not previously revealed that's now being revealed.
What's being revealed is that now we have the time of the Gentiles.
This church age.
It doesn't mean that God's forgotten or replaced Israel.
God has not forgotten or replaced Israel.
But there's this thing that's called the church that the Old Testament prophets did not see.
And there's a gap between when Messiah was cut off and when the 70th week is going to happen.
There's also something they didn't see also called a mystery and it's the rapture.
This thing, he says, I'll, behold, I give you a mystery.
We should not all sleep but we all shall all be changed in a moment.
The twinkling of the eye at the last trump.
And so this is what God did.
So we know that Jesus' answer includes Daniel's description of the 70th week because it includes the abomination of desolation.
And this is when Daniel describes it as happening.
It was described in Jeremiah as the time of Jacob's trouble.
And from there we see the second description, another one we studied last week.
Description number two is birth pains.
So if you read Jesus' answer, he gets right into these things that he calls birth pains.
You read about those from verse four to verse 14.
The word comes from the word translated sorrows.
If you have your Bible go down to verse eight, this won't probably be on the screen, but read this with me.
All these things are the beginning of, what does it say?
Sorrows, the word sorrows is Odin, which means travail, which means birth pains.
Okay.
And what we said, that birth pains start slow and get faster.
Who agrees with me?
And they start from less intense to more intense.
Birth pains get more intense.
And so we see a correlation between the birth pains that Jesus described here and the judgments that were found in Revelation.
And for all of the trying I was trying to do, that's what I was trying to tell you last week.
That when you read verses four to 14, you see a few things.
Here's another diagram.
Are you ready?
There's deceptions by false Christ.
He described that in verse four and five.
Where he says, take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name saying, I am Christ and shall deceive many.
So at the end there's going to be a bunch of people who claim to be Christ.
And the ultimate example of that is who?
The anti-Christ.
If you're not familiar with Bible study, we will make you familiar with this person called the anti-Christ today.
That seems to correspond with the seal judgment that described in Revelation 6 verses 1 and 2.
I will not take the time to read it.
But when I get done with this chart, you can take a picture or go to our website and study the back and forth on that.
You should study your Bible beyond here too.
I'll give you some homework.
Then you have disputes and warfare among the nations.
That's described in verses 6 and 7.
That's also described in seal judgment 1 and 2.
He says in verses 6 and 7, you 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.
For nations shall rise against nations and kingdom against kingdom.
And these shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places.
That seems to correlate with seal judgments 1 and 2.
Then you have number 3, devastation throughout the world.
That goes to seal judgments 3 and 4, seal judgment 6.
And the trumpets judgments are all found in chapters 1 through 4, sorry, verses 1 through 4, Revelation 8 verse 7 through 12.
Then you have the deliverance of believers to tribulation, meaning that people that get saved during this time will be, many of them will be Jews that were getting saved and others.
They will be delivered to tribulation and judgment.
That's exactly what's described in Revelation 6, 9 through 11.
You have the defection of false believers in verses 10 to 13.
Many shall be offended, it says in verse 10.
And in verse 11, shall be, and hate one another, many false prophets shall rise and deceive many.
And because the iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
So you have the defection of false believers, that's described in Revelation 13, 1 through 4, 12 through 15 and then Revelation 9.
Then you have the declaration of the gospel of the kingdom to the whole world.
And that is described throughout Revelation 11, Revelation 14, Revelation 7, 1 through 5, 13 through 17.
There's two witnesses that come and preach.
Then there's 144,000 that go out and preach.
And this gospel of the kingdom is preached during that time.
Those who get saved, many of them are brought to martyrdom.
And those who aren't to martyrdom have to endure all kinds of pain and suffering.
So my point is, the first part that Jesus says, if you go to Revelation, seems to be the same kind of description as the beginning of the tribulation.
So they correlate.
The 70 weeks, the first three and a half years are where you experience the birth pains and then beyond that.
Okay, that's description number two.
Now we're caught up from last week.
We have description number three.
Here's description number three.
This is what Jesus says, when you therefore verse 15, shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place.
Whoso readeth, let him understand.
What is this abomination of desolation?
Daniel speaks about it.
Jesus speaks about it.
What does it mean?
Well, an abomination is a word, belugdima.
It means a detestation and is used often about idolatry.
So one thing that God hates is idols.
Who has ever read the Ten Commandments?
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
You shall not make unto thee any graven image.
Don't put anything ahead of me.
Don't even try to make anything that looks like me.
Don't make anything that you worship instead of me.
Okay?
So that's what this abomination is.
What is the abomination of desolation?
The word arremosis is a making desolate.
So you put those two things together.
It's an abominable thing that makes desolate.
It's a word, the word for abomination is often used in things related to idolatry.
So this is an idol that's worshiped and as it's worshiped, it desecrates.
Okay?
Does that make sense?
Notice it says in verse 15 something about the holy place.
What is the holy place?
Well, that's in the temple.
This kind of thing already happened.
So let me give you in history what Daniel talks about is something that already happens that says abomination of desolation.
Go to Daniel chapter number 11.
Okay?
This will also be on your screen.
It says in verse 31, and arm shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength and shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.
Okay?
Do you see that?
Now in chapter 11, the first part of the chapter, it's a kind of a long chapter.
This is Daniel 11.
It's devoted to some historical things in the latter part to the end time things.
But while you're looking in chapter 11 there in verse 31, we have a very, very graphic description of an interesting historical figure.
I don't think that any Bible commentary that I've read has ever interpreted this particular part any other way than at least no notable scholar, then as a reference to a historical figure named Antiochus Epiphanes.
He was a Syrian king who basically reigned from 175 to 165 BC.
He called himself Epiphanes, which means the Great One.
Okay?
Antiochus the Great One.
He wasn't very modest.
People called him Antiochus Epimhanes, which means maniac.
So we're not the first people to make fun of our leaders.
But anyway, this particular man is a very interesting figure.
In verse 31 it says about him, if you study the whole text, who it is.
It says, he forces shall stand on his part and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength.
They shall take away the daily sacrifice and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.
The same phrase.
He's going to bring about an abomination of desolation, Antiochus Epiphanes.
Here we have a historical picture of what the end time abomination will look like.
He was a great persecutor of the people of Israel.
If you read, if you have an old Catholic Bible that has the apocryphin, you'll find the books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees.
And if you look in there, you'll get a whole rundown on Antiochus because he was written in the period in which he lived,
a period of about 400 years after Daniel prophesied prior to the New Testament era.
You read in there that he tried to stamp out the Jewish religion and in so doing he slaughtered thousands and thousands of Jews,
including men, women, and even children.
In the worst act, as far as I think Jewish history is concerned, he desecrated the temple.
And he did that by abominating the temple, by going in and slaughtering a pig on the altar,
and then taking pork and stuffing it down the throats of the priests,
and then setting up an idol in that place, a Greek god in that place.
Okay? What do you know about the Jews and pigs?
Right. Right.
So he goes into their temple and he slaughters a pig in their temple, and then he takes pork and desecrates the priests,
and he desecrates the altar, and then he sets up a Greek god where we don't even put, like, the Jews and the Christians.
We don't make, some people that call themselves Christians make idols, even of God and Jesus.
We don't do that. You don't see figurines of Jesus here because that ain't Jesus.
We have a living God. Okay? And he told us not to, by the way.
Right. So we have this picture of what's already happened.
This abomination, this idol, this worship to an idol that desecrates or desolates the temple.
Okay?
Now notice when it happens in the future, it happens in the middle of the 70th week, back to Daniel chapter 9,
where it says, he shall confirm the covenant with one week, and in the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice of the ablation to cease
and for the overspreading of abominations. He shall make it desolate even under the consummation, and that, in turn, shall be poured out on the desolate.
Daniel chapter 12 gives us more on this timing. Many shall be purified and made white and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly,
it says in verse 10, none of the wicked shall understand, but the why shall understand, and from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away,
and the abomination that make it desolate set up shall be 1,290 days, which is just over 3 1⁄2 years.
This abomination that desecrates is also found, you'll find about it in Revelation 13-11. You ready? Let me show you it.
And I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten hordes,
and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his head the name of blasphemy. Man, I won't have a ton of time to explain this, but it says,
verse 2, in the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth was the mouth of a lion.
The dragon gave him his power, the dragon is Satan. It's referred to as Satan, read through Revelation. That old serpent, the devil.
Satan will give this guy who is the antichrist power and his seat in great authority. I saw one of his heads where wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed,
and all that world wandered after the beast, so the beast is the antichrist, and the antichrist is trying to do what Christ did.
What did Christ do? He was killed and then he resurrected. You have here Satan giving this antichrist a mortal wound and then resurrecting.
Verse 4, they worshiped the dragon, Satan, which gave power unto the beast, and they worshiped the beast saying, who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war with him.
There was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and powers was given unto him to continue 40 and 2 months. 40 and 2 months.
How long is that? 42 months is 3 1⁄2 years.
And he opened his mouth and blaspheme against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle.
And them that dwell in heaven. The false prophet makes the people work of the beast, another name for the antichrist.
Verse 7, chapter 13, and behold another beast coming from the earth, two horns like a lamb and he spake as a dragon and he exorcised power for the first beast before him and caused the earth and them which worshiped,
which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed.
Can I tell you, this is, I'm pausing, are you ready?
Satan's desire is to be worshiped as God. That's his desire.
People that follow Satan do what he does and they desire to be worshiped.
And in a society, when in a culture, when God is not God, the state becomes God.
That's what we're moving towards. Are you with me? That's what we're moving towards.
The issue is not, let me keep going.
So here's what's going on. Verse 14, he deceived them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the side of the beast.
Saying to them that the well in the earth and they should make an image to the beast.
Here's this image which made the wound by a sword and he had power to give life.
This image, this idol, that the image of the beast should speak and cause that many should not worship the image of the beast.
Anybody that doesn't worship the image shall be killed.
So much of the time, even with kings and states, the issue is not that you worship, they don't have a problem that you worship God or you worship Jesus.
You don't worship them. Right? That's what happened with Rome.
It's fine that you say Jesus is Lord but you should say Caesar is Lord.
And early Christians say, Caesar is not Lord Jesus is Lord.
And that's why they were killed. This is exactly what the apostle Paul said would happen.
One more place, 2 Thessalonians 2.1, here's what it says.
Talking about the same idea.
That you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled by spirit or word or by letter from us as that the day of Christ is at hand.
Let no man deceive you by any means for that day shall not come except there's come a falling away first and that man of sin.
This is the antichrist. Be revealed the son of perdition who opposes and exalted himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God siteth in the temple of God showing himself that he is God.
What does Satan want to do? He wants to set up this false Christ and he wants to be worshiped like Christ is worshiped.
Antioch is epiphany set up a Greek God. This one is going to set himself up as God.
And now you get the picture. As we move toward the end of human history, Israel is going to be more and more in a vulnerable position.
And to protect themselves from the holocaust which they don't want to happen, they are going to align themselves with a seemingly Western European power headed by a prince, a leader, a great leader and attractive leader.
This particular leader is going to be their strength, their support and their help.
The world is going to come against him and Israel at some point out of their hatred for Israel.
And this antichrist will defeat them and in that moment he will betray his real heart and take over power of Israel and desecrate their holy place.
Having defeated the world and set up himself to be worshiped, he becomes that God of all gods that the world must bow before and establish the abomination that desolates.
And from that moment that he establishes that and the daily sacrifice which will be in a rebuilt temple in that time, it stops and the Jewish people no longer go near the place.
And from that moment on, the great tribulation begins.
It lasts 42 months, 1260 days, 3.5 years followed by a 30-day period of judging and a 45-day period of transitioning into the Millennial Kingdom.
And what you see in Jesus' answer is birth pains, abomination of death, desolation and then great tribulation.
Look back to Matthew 24 verse 15.
You have the abomination of desolation.
Verse 16, when you see that.
Verse 16, you need to run.
Then let them which be in Jerusalem flee into the mountains.
Where is this happening at?
Jerusalem, right?
He says run into the mountains.
Let him that is on the house top not come down and take anything out of his house.
So you have the response that needs to happen.
The first one is running.
The second thing is it's immediate.
The description is to run.
When you see that happen, run.
Some say why is Jesus talking to disciples as if they will be here if they knew they won't be here.
The description is answering the disciples question.
He is talking to them but it's a common occurrence in prophecy.
We have prophecies given to people in the Old Testament that were later fulfilled in Old Testament times when the people first given the prophecy were spoken to as if they would be there but they weren't there.
The information got to the people who needed it through the people that heard it in the immediate.
This is obviously the worst time in all of human history in terms of suffering.
It describes the last half of the tribulation period and usher's in which is described in the last description.
It's immediate problems.
Verse 17, let him that stand on the house top not come back down to take anything out of his house.
Verse 18, neither let him which is in the field return back to take their clothes.
It's going to be a time that's difficult for mothers.
Look at verse 19.
We're on to them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days.
It's difficult in winter and Sabbath.
Look at verse 20.
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day, for then shall be great tribulation.
When does it happen?
Once you see the abomination of tribulation, then you're going to see great tribulation.
Three and a half years of, what does it say, verse 21.
Such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no nor ever shall be.
And the whole paragraph relates only to Jews for no Christian believer would worry about breaking a Sabbath law.
Verse 22, and accept those days should be shortened that there should be no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.
He says to them, those that are there, in verse 23, you should reject the Antichrist.
It says, verse 23, then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders.
Exactly what's described in Revelation.
Are you guys with me?
Exactly what's described.
It's so much that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect.
Behold, I have told you before.
Wherefore, if they say unto you, behold, he's in the desert, go not forth, behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not.
Then we see all of this great tribulation described, and then Jesus says, all of it ends, here it is, with the Son of Man coming back.
Who's the Son of Man?
Jesus.
We see this in verse 27 and 28, which I'm going to talk about here in a second.
This all culminates with the coming of the Son of Man.
And these all seem to be, all these things in the great tribulation seem to be corresponding with the trumpet judgments and the vile judgments or the bull judgments in Revelation.
One person said this, I got to hurry.
During the first three and a half years of the tribulation, the judgments were natural, wars, famines, earthquakes, but during the last half, the judgments will be supernatural and devastating.
That leads us to description number five.
Here we go.
Are you with me? Have I lost you?
Okay.
Description number five, the coming of the Son of Man.
This ends the tribulation period.
Okay.
Here are seven truths I want you to know about the second coming across.
Probably I'm preaching you a series in one sermon.
Here we go.
Number one, he will return at the end of the great tribulation.
He will return suddenly, verse 27, look at what it says.
So, how does Jesus come back at the end?
I did it again.
Suddenly.
He will return after a sign that says in verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be dark and the moon shall not give her light and the stars shall fall from heaven.
Powers of heaven shall be shaken and shall appear the sign of the Son of Man and the sun shall be dark.
Then the sun shall be Vamos y y.
And the sun shall be on the moon, and the stars shall fall from heaven, from heaven shall be shaken and the sun shall appear the sign of the Son of Man and heaven, and there shall be all tribes of the earth mourned and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
He's not, when he came the first time he came as a servant,
he came as a baby, this time he's coming back
as a warrior king.
That's what's happening.
He will return to fight at Armageddon.
It says this in Revelation 16 verse 13.
I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out
of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast
and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For there the spirits of devils working miracles
which go under the kings of the earth
and the whole world to gather them
to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
And then he says, behold I come as a thief.
Blessed is he that watches and keepeth his garments
lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
And he gathered them together in a place called
in the Hebrew tongue what?
Armageddon.
He comes back to make war.
1911.
And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse
and he that sat upon his, him was called faithful and true.
Who's that?
And in righteousness he judges and makes war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire
and on his head were many crowns
and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.
And he was closed with a vesture dipped in blood
and his name is called the word of God.
And in the armies which were in heaven followed him
upon the white horses closed in fine linen,
white and clean they will not mess up their clothes
cause they ain't fighting.
Jesus is the only one fighting.
He will return victoriously.
We win.
Jesus wins.
And if we're with him, we share in that victory.
We don't get the victory.
Victory in Jesus, my Savior.
Okay, you gotta stop.
We're singing next week.
Are you with me?
We win.
Let me read about it.
You wanna read about it?
Verse 15, out of his mouth goes a sharp sword
that he should smite the nations
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron
and he treadeth a wine press of the fierceness
of the wrath of Almighty God
and he hath on his vesture and on his name a thigh written,
King of kings and Lord of lords.
I could do a whole lot more.
Verse 21, the remnant were slain with the sword of him
that came out of him that sat on the horse
which sword proceeded out of his mouth
and all the fouls were filled with their flesh.
And in the name of God,
P.G. 13.
He will return and he will restore Israel.
God keeps his promises.
Zechariah 12, 2 and 3.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling
into all the people round about
when they shall be in the siege both against Jerusalem
and Judah and Jerusalem.
And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone
for all people.
All that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces.
Though all the people of the earth be gathered together
against it.
Verse 8, in that day shall the Lord defend
the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And he that is feeble among them all that day shall be as David
and the house of David shall be as God.
As the angel of the Lord before them
and it shall come to pass in that day
that I will seek to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem.
And I'll pour upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplication.
And they shall look upon me
whom they have pierced
and they shall mourn for him
as one mourneth for his only son
and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his first born.
Jesus is coming back
to rule and to reign and to make everything right.
He's gonna make everything right.
Some of you may think,
well if all of this is talking about the tribulation,
I'm reading about these birth pains
and about these false Christ and I'm going,
you may think, some of that seems to be happening now.
Last couple weeks, have you guys heard about
earthquakes in the news?
Wars and rumors of wars.
Is there a lot of misinformation and disinformation
happening?
Have you had it, do you find it hard to believe people
that report to you?
What I wanna say is this,
that what we're experiencing now
is not anything like those things
in terms of its intensity, in terms of its judgments,
but I do believe that there are certain things
that have to happen before those things can happen.
Israel has to be a nation, has that happened?
They've come back to their land.
People have to kind of be mad at them.
There seems to be kind of a one world kind of government
thing going on.
I'm not saying those are the signs,
Jesus goes on to say this, I can't preach it,
but I'll tell you it.
He says, no one knows the day or the hour,
but he talks about the parable of the fig tree.
He says, you can know the sign,
but you can't know the sign.
No one knows the day or the hour, but he talks about the parable of the fig tree.
He says, you can know the season.
Now Jesus, it could be 500 more years before Jesus comes back.
I don't know, I wouldn't count on it.
I believe that the next thing we're looking for is Jesus to come back
to gather his bride.
At the last Trump.
But how do you actually live this out?
How does this impact your life?
I think that if God revealed it, we seek to understand it.
That's what I've been trying to help you do the last couple of weeks.
To help you understand what does the Bible say about what's going to happen at the end.
And if Jesus gave it to us, we should try to understand.
Who agrees?
There are people that disagree with me, that's fine.
I think every mind has to be confident in his own heart and mind is what he believes.
But when you're reading and hearing about all that you've had,
that you have, what do you need to understand?
Here's what I'll tell you.
You have a choice.
You can risk being there in that tribulation time.
Or you can avoid it.
How do you avoid it?
You put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ.
Right?
You put your faith and trust in God.
Jesus is the only way for salvation.
It's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.
And so here's what I want you to know.
He became sin who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
That means God can take away your sin and give you Jesus' righteousness.
And you become a new creature through faith in Jesus.
Put your faith in Jesus and let him sort out what happens at the end.
That's what you need to do.
How do you do that?
Turn to Christ by faith today.
Today.
So if you don't know Christ, you need to know Him.
You need to repent of your sins and trust in Him.
That doesn't mean that you're not going to be sinless.
It means that you're turning to Him by faith because He's the one that offers you forgiveness of sins.
And He's the only one that can do that.
What about if you're a believer today?
How should this impact your life?
Well, here's what I believe with all my heart.
This is what I believe about Trinity Baptist Church.
People who believe in this place.
We need to have a radical obedience to evangelism.
We need to show a radical obedience to making sure that people who don't know Christ as their Savior hear the gospel and get saved.
Because we're not sure how long we have.
There needs to be an urgency.
An urgency in our lives about people knowing that Jesus Christ is the only way to God.
We are not playing church.
This is not a social club.
People are dying and going to hell.
At some point we may be raptured and taken away and we won't be here to declare to people faith in Christ.
Are you with me?
So we need a radical obedience.
I'm not telling you to be weird.
Totally.
I'm telling you to be noisy.
To tell people about Jesus.
We need a radical obedience and discipleship.
It's not just enough for me to tell people about Christ.
It's enough for me to tell people about Christ and live a life that is an obedience to the Lordship of Christ.
So that my life matches the message that I'm giving.
Are you with me?
And then you need to have security.
Here's the security you need to have.
You need to have security found in knowing Christ and trusting that in his plan.
He will hold me fast.
For my Savior loves me so.
He will hold me fast.
You don't have to fear men because you fear God.
And so radical obedience and evangelism, radical obedience and discipleship, security found in knowing Christ, calling on the name of the Lord to be saved.
Not that prayer saves you.
Jesus saves you.
And if you ask him to save you, he will do it.
Would you bow your head?