The following message was recorded at Antioch Presbyterian Church, an historic and charter congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, ministering to upstate South Carolina since 1843. Come and visit us at the crossroads of Greenville and Spartanburg counties. Experience our past and be a part of our future. For more information, visit AntiochPCF.com. I'm not a computer scientist. My brother is, but I'm not. But I do know about what's called a command line interface. I think all computers have them. It's an application, if you will. Perhaps it's a wrong word to use. It's an interface, like a window on your computer that you type things into, where you can direct your computer to do certain things, to open files, duplicate files, move files, run programs, clean up stuff. Most of us don't really use the command line interface, but if you have administrator rights on your computer, you can use it. And you can make your computer do certain things and operate more efficiently if you know your way around it. Like I said, to be able to use it, you need certain privileges. You need authorization. And then to use it rightly, you need to give it accurate prompts or directions. Authority or authorization and accuracy to key components, to computing, Well, there are two key components as well to teaching, and especially teaching on matters as convoluted and difficult to divide and to understand as the nature of the kingdom of heaven. and what is going on in Jesus's interactions with Pharisees and Sadducees and now with disciples and those who are asking him thorny and important questions. Unlike the hypocrites and the false teachers that have distorted the truth, have fed lies to the people of God, the visible church of first century Israel and Judea, Christ comes as a reformer king utterly, inerrantly, authoritatively, sufficiently, and altogether true in his teaching. He has all authorization and authority to teach, and he comes with perfect accuracy in his teaching. And thus, certain results are obtained through Christ's ministry. What I want to show you today from this passage is that the reliability of Christ's Word guarantees the resilience of Christ's Kingdom until He returns. The reliability of Christ's Word guarantees the resilience of His Kingdom until He returns. Therefore, his followers are to endure through trials and tribulations, difficulties and distresses, projects and pursuits, with two things, watchfulness and perseverance. You might think reading through the Olivet Discourse, that's what this is called, in Matthew 24-25, you might think that what's important here is that we can recognize when the end comes. What's really important here is that we're not misled off the path that Christ sets for his disciples. What's really important here is that we maintain watchfulness, so we're prepared for when He comes, whenever that is, and perseverance. For he who endures to the end will be saved, our Savior says. So let's give heed to the word, the utterly reliable word of Christ, our Reformer King, upon which His kingdom rests. by which it will endure until He returns." Well, consider this passage under two headings. In the first place, the reliability of Christ our King's Word in verses 1 to 22. And then in the second place, the resilience of Christ's Kingdom in verses 23 through 35. The reliability of Christ our King's Word and the resilience of Christ's Kingdom. The test of a prophet in Deuteronomy chapter 18 is really a test about a man's word, the reliability of his word. And we read there that when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is a thing which the Lord has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You shall not be afraid of him. You shall not regard him. You shouldn't esteem what he says. But what should we think of Christ's word? is what he says to his disciples about the fate of the temple and of Jerusalem. Is it true? Is it reliable? Or is it so much fantasy? Well, what I want to show you, in case it's not clear, or what I want to convince you of, is that everything that Christ predicts in Matthew 24 has come to pass. Everything He predicts has come to pass in its time, and thus His Word is utterly reliable. He is speaking as God's prophet and as Christ our King with all authority and accuracy. I want to show you how it is that His Word is utterly reliable. Picking up right here at the beginning of the chapter and the first three verses were presented with the disciples concern and it's a confused concern and they're coming to Jesus asking for him to give them an answer. Jesus came out from the temple. There's actually a little phrase pregnant with meaning. He's not going to go back to the temple. He's departing from it. It's almost as if he's turning his back on the temple which has rejected him, the whole system of Jewish religion which has ridiculed him and sought his destruction. But he came out from the temple and was going away. when his disciples came up 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." Now this prediction, it sets off a series of questions and answers, sets off a discussion. And Jesus knew exactly what he was doing. He knew what was going on in the hearts of his disciples. These men from Galilee and Capernaum and up in the hinterland, they're in the big city, they're seeing this glorious structure and they're marveling at it. It's wonderful. And they're thinking, our master is the Messiah. He's the Christ. We're going to have some authority here. We're going to be able to do some things here. They're starting to dream dreams. And he's going not just to cut down their dreams, but really to give them some, you might say, armor to protect them against the temptation, which is already beginning to creep into their hearts. in spite of everything he's already told them. And so he kicks off this discussion and he says, this temple's gonna be destroyed. It's going, going, gone. pretty soon. And so as he's sitting on the Mount of Olives after they've made their way somewhere else and they kind of camp out, you might say, the disciples came to him privately saying, because now they know they're safe, they're not in public, they could say, what in the world are you talking about? When will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of not the destruction of the temple, but of the end of the age. Now they're probably, and this is where their confusion is, they're probably thinking that Jesus was referring to the very end of time, when all things would be destroyed, because in their Jewish thinking, they couldn't conceive of the temple being destroyed apart from all the world being destroyed. They had this idea, as many Jews of their day did, that the temple, as God's dwelling place, was inviolable, it was indestructible, that it would take the very end of the world to do what it is that Christ said would happen, to turn all the stones over and to upset them. And Jesus is going to clear up their confused concern. In verses 4-22, Jesus answers the disciples' confused concern with his reliable description of what's happening. The King's reliable word is here for us. Notice what he says in verse 4. This is the key to everything. Jesus answered and said to them, That's the danger of their confusion, is they're vulnerable to be misled by false teachers. And so Jesus, as our reformer king, as I've been saying through this Matthew series, he confronts that confusion and warns them against being misled. The disciples had conflated the destruction of the temple with the second advent, or parousia, that is, the return of Christ in glory to judge all the world. And Jesus' response is that they would not be misled into destruction, but rather would be aware of what's actually going to happen in their lifetime so that they might be preserved, and thus the kingdom might prove resilient. The stakes here. are life and death. Their confusion will lead to death, but the truth, the reliable truth of Christ's teaching will lead them to life, to preserve their lives alive, you might say. And so Christ describes what will take place leading up to Jerusalem's and the temple's destruction here in these verses. Look at them with me. Verse 5. Many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and will mislead many. That is, in these early days of the church, particularly after Christ ascends to heaven, there will be sects and cults that start to proliferate among the Jewish people. As different men arise and say, I'm the Christ. No, I'm the Christ. No, I'm the Messiah. No, I have the promise. And many Jews will be drawn away after these men. And don't we see that in the book of Acts? where some of them are even cited. Different insurrectionists, different messianic figures, we might say, all who prove to be nothing. But if it's of God, no man can stop it. And that's what we see in the kingdom of heaven, in Christ's kingdom. That's the first thing that they'll see that they should be aware of. And then verses six through eight, look at those. You'll be hearing, what else? Of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not frightened, for those things must take place. But that's not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be catastrophes of famines and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Rumors of military aggression, news of calamities and catastrophes, this is not the end of the world. But these are signs leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple, of life as the disciples knew it as first century Jews, the end of the age of, you might say, the Jewish church. What else? Verse 9. Then they will deliver you, speaking to his disciples, they'll deliver you to tribulation and they will kill you and you'll be hated by all nations because of my name. There's going to be persecution from Jews and Gentiles against the followers of Christ. Don't expect that you're going to be welcomed with open arms by the Jewish nation or by the Romans or by the Greeks or by anybody. You're going to be persecuted. Be prepared for that. Again, we see that the king's word was proven true. In the record of their early ministries, there were all manner of persecutions from all quarters against Peter and Paul and James and John and all the rest in the book of Acts. Persecutions, what else should they expect? Verse 10, at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. There's going to be apostasy, and you might even say apostasies, as men with whom you labored, O disciples, will turn against you and fall away from you. Judas is but the model of many men who follow him, Alexander and Demas, those who do great harm, Hymenaeus, and Diotrephes, and all these others that we read about in the letters of the early apostles. This is nothing new, but surely Christ predicted it, and he predicted it truly. This is something the disciples needed to be aware of that would happen. There would be false teachers in the church. In verse 11, many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Those who preach Christ in vain. Those who say you must become a Jew and get circumcised in order to be a Christian. Those who infect the church with all manner of false religion. Jesus is predicting that even of the apostolic church they would be dealing with those things. And isn't it the case? All you have to do is read Galatians to be convinced that this was a problem. But press on then into the letters to the seven churches. Read about what's going on in Corinthians with super apostles. These are difficulties that the disciples faced in their lifetimes. but of which they shouldn't have been unaware. They should have fully expected such things, for Christ warned them. Their king gave them a scouting report that proved true. And then, moving into verse 12, it's perhaps the saddest thing of all. Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. What does that mean? There will be an uptick, a groundswell of cynicism and jadedness, Jesus says. as it's clear that righteousness is being trampled underfoot by men everywhere you look. There will be suspicion even within the church against one another as men fall away, as they abuse their authority, as they don't listen to good teachers, as they're attracted to false teachers. And Jesus is warning them against this. After hearing all this, who in their right mind would say, yes, sign me up. I want to get after it. Well, this is where the encouragement will come in. So what? Why go through with all this? Verses 13 and 14, Jesus says, but the one who endures to the end through all of this mess and disaster The one who endures through even the destruction of Jerusalem, you might say, he 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. That is, have hope, pursue, persist, press on. For my word, which is reliable, will be fulfilled. As the disciples face these difficulties leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem, and I'm going to get there, but as the disciples are facing these difficulties, they ought to be reminded of what Jesus had predicted for them, and then reminded of His exhortation to endure and be saved, and be reminded of His promise that their preaching will not be in vain, but the gospel will be preached to the ends of the earth The known world, we might say, even before Jerusalem is destroyed. And the record that we have of the apostles' activity is that before AD 70 hits, the gospel is going forth all the way to Spain. and all the way to the farthest reaches of human habitation, that is the whole world. And all the known nations of the world that they knew are hearing the gospel. And there are believers being raised up in every place. There's a great encouragement as Christ's Word is proven true. Christ describes then in verses 15 to 22 what will happen at the fall of Jerusalem. He says, Let the reader understand. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains." And he gives some directions here. We're going to go through them. But this abomination of desolation, generally speaking, is the defilement of the temple of God, where you see false religion being promulgated, when you see perhaps even Roman authorities trampling into the midst, when you see all this about to happen, Let the reader understand, that is, be careful and diligent to study the Word of God about these matters. Then you are to do certain things. You are to flee to the mountains where you will find refuge, Christ says. When religion is defiled and corrupted, What must be done? Flee, because this is the sign that Jerusalem is about to fall, that the judgment of God is going to fall on it. So get out of there. And why? Because it will be the severest judgment ever. He says, whoever's on the housetop mustn't even go down to get the things that are in his house. Whoever's in the field mustn't turn back to get his cloak. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days. Because while you can leave your possessions and you can leave your cloak, who of any heart can leave a child or bear up under the pressure of a rapid departure but pray that your flight will not be in the winter when the weather would be unpredictable, or on a Sabbath when you can't count on getting any help along the way from those who conscientiously keep the Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. And contemporary accounts, such as from Josephus, of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 tell us that upwards of one million people died in the siege. And there were thousands and thousands taken as slaves, and the whole city was razed. Truly, if you're speaking proportionately, there has not been a greater destruction of a major city in human history as that. Not even the dropping of the atomic bomb can compare to the death toll of the destruction of Jerusalem. But contemporary records also account that many Christians mysteriously, inexplicably fled Jerusalem in time and got away. And that really, the greatest destruction in the city was from the infighting and the dissensions among the different Jewish sects of all these various leaders competing against one another and devouring one another. What does all that say, historically speaking? Our king's word was proven true. Truly, he warned his disciples. Truly, he gave them instruction to preserve their lives. Truly, he, among all the rest of them, alone was proven to be who he said he was. By his word, his kingdom then was resilient. What hope do we have? Notice what he says at the end in verse 22, unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. And we might say now on this side of the things, for the elect, for the church's sake, those days were cut short. That is, the emperor Titus entered Jerusalem, destroyed the city and said, okay, we're done here. Didn't go on and destroy all the countryside. He didn't go up into the mountains. The church was preserved. God's people, those he chose, were kept for his purposes that the gospel might continue to go forth even until his return. Now, you're confronted with a choice this morning as we reflect on this prophesied history. a choice of what or whom to take as a guide or leader. It's the same choice the disciples had. You see, Jesus knew that there would be those who would lay claim to the truth and yet would have no truth. And so he gives the truth to his disciples to protect them and to equip them then to resist the temptation to fall away or to be led astray. And we have this same choice set before us today. What are we to do? We are to recognize that there is truth and reliability in God's Word. And in Christ's Word, we are then to hearken to the voice of the Good Shepherd and not to allow anyone to mislead us. Don't allow any false teacher to come in with speculative, foreign notions that compete with the Word of God and to draw you astray. Does that mean that there's not going to be disagreements in the church about exegetical details or interpretations? Of course not. We're going to have things that we work out and hash out, and even where we can be charitable with one another and coexist. It's probably unnecessary to hammer this home. There are such a thing as false teachers and false prophets who endanger the souls of men by their falsehood. And this has been the case, not just leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem that Jesus was talking about in this passage, but also it's been the case throughout church history again and again and again from the days of the apostles down to the present, even until Christ returns. Don't allow any of them to mislead you. The Joseph Smiths, the Mohammeds, the Ellen Whites of the world, the Kenneth Copelands, the Joel Osteens, the Joyce Myers of the world, do not allow them to mislead you. For though they promise life, they have nothing but death in their train, if you were to follow them. But Christ is true. Christ our King. His word is true and endures forever. Be comforted and encouraged, dear believer. What we face today is much like what the first disciples faced. That's another reason why this passage is preserved for us, not only to vindicate and to prove the reliability of Christ's word, but also to show us that what the disciples faced is a pattern for what we face as a church in every age. Be comforted, therefore, that God has a purpose to preserve His elect. Be comforted, therefore, that God does hear our prayers. Or else, why would Jesus say, pray that such things won't happen on a Sabbath, or would not happen in the winter? Rejoice, God granted them endurance, he's going to grant endurance to those who look to him in faith. He saved them, he shall save you, dear believer. The gospel of the kingdom was preached in the whole known world of their day as a testimony to all the nations, and now, standing 2,000 years later, we can say the gospel of the kingdom has been preached quite literally in all the earth to all the nations of the earth. And though there are unreached people groups, it's largely a matter of not having the word in their own languages. But the gospel goes forth. He heard their prayers. He delivered many from the ravages of imperial Roman aggression and Jewish persecution, and he's preserved his church in every age. He cut those days short so that his chosen people would not be utterly consumed. Indeed, Some look at history and they just see a meaningless train of cause and effect and they say things are going on as they've always gone on and with great cynicism and jadedness and with no love for man, they say, c'est la vie, such is life, it will go on interminably forever until the great crunch. But we know that God has purposes in history, that it's not merely mechanical cause and effect, but God's direct involvement through providence to preserve his people entire. Do you have that hope this morning? Do you count yourself as one of Christ's followers, as one of his disciples? Do you hear his teaching and are you attracted to follow him? If not, consider where it will lead you to neglect his instruction, to set aside his word in favor of some other council in the world. It will lead you to destruction and severe destruction, especially for those of us who've grown up in the church. For you who are here today, you will have no excuse, no excuse at all, for you have heard the gospel, that Jesus came to save sinners, and in Him alone is salvation found, that He is King and rules above. And how can you reject Him when He's proven so utterly true? And so He's the God who hears prayer. Therefore, believer, continue to believe with earnestness. and with vigor, hope, hope in Him. Though all the world falls apart, hope in God, in Christ, and endure. Do not fall away. Do not forsake Him, but rather pray, pray that He would keep you even in death. Having considered the reliability of Christ our King's word, we can now very briefly consider the resilience of Christ's kingdom. In verses 23 through 35, it's not that Christ is done talking about the events that are going to lead up to the destruction of the Jewish temple and everything in AD 70. He's going to continue to make reference to that. But now there's a shifting here where he is, the perspective is kind of collapsing in, and he is going to address his disciples' concern, confused though it may have been, about his coming again, more as a point of contrast, that they wouldn't be drawn into some kind of vain speculation as we see the church in Thessalonica struggles with, and Paul addresses in his own letters. But we read in verse 23, then, if anyone says to you, behold, Here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe him. What is Jesus focusing on? Alternative teachings or sayings. If anyone says to you this, remember what I've said to you. Call to mind what I'm saying to you now. Jesus is setting up this contrast between his true word and the false word. True teaching and false teaching. Good instruction and bad instruction, you might say. Sound directions and destructive directions. That's his concern. And don't forget that that's the contest going on here. There are telltale signs of what's going to happen at Christ's return. And thus, we mustn't be drawn away by cloudy speculation regarding what to be looking for. Rather, trust that we'll know it when we see it and when it happens is what Christ is saying here. He says, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. They'll be convincing. They'll be compelling. But the elect will be preserved. They cannot be misled. Behold, I myself have told you in advance about these things, reminding them. This is to be your ever-present reminder. Christ has told us. Christ has told us. Thus, we know that these other folks are charlatans and impostors. So if they say to you, behold, he's in the wilderness, do not go out. Do not listen to them. Do not follow them. Or behold, he's in the inner rooms. Do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." He uses these two images of lightning and vultures or eagles, not in any allegorical sense, but just very straightforward sense. You can't miss it! When you see lightning flash across the sky, no one needs to tell you, hey, look, there was lightning. No, you just saw it. When you see vultures circling above, or birds of prey as we do in these fields around here, you know, well there must be some dead thing over there they're picking at, or there must be a mouse in the field that they're about to swoop down and destroy. And so it's going to be abundantly clear when Christ comes back, don't trouble yourself about trying to read all these things with great certainty and expectancy. This really isn't all that difficult. If someone says, Jesus is coming back on October 20th, 2024 at 5 p.m., don't believe that. We'll get into that more in another week. However, Christ's predictions regarding His Kingdom and its resilience leading to His return are very sure. They're unshakable. The signs of His return are obvious. on the resilience of the kingdom rather than to obsess about the destruction of the temple and what that may or may not mean for the timing of Christ's second advent, his physical return in glory to judge living and the dead as the promised Messiah, as the Son of Man described in our passage. He says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and then they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory, is the series that He gives. And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. What he's referring to here is that glorious return that will be so obvious you won't be able to miss it. As dazzling as the sun, moon, and the stars are, he uses prophetic language here to say, you won't even be thinking about them. You won't be looking to them. You won't be trying to read them. for the glory of the Son of Man will eclipse them, you might say, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man, like the first rays of dawn before the sun comes up over the horizon, the sign of the Son of Man, whatever it is, but the indication that His judgment is at hand, will appear in the sky, and all the tribes of the earth will see it and mourn. Some, a godly mourning over their sin and contrition and repentance, the mourning that will produce the tears that then God will wipe away from the eyes of His elect and of His beloved ones. But then for others, a mourning due to sorrow, not over sin, but over their destruction, for they are unrepentant, they're not penitent. But all will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. Now what's interesting about this is what we read in Daniel chapter seven is this picture of the son of man being born up on the clouds to the ancient of days, which might be a picture of his ascension and coronation and his taking up his session in heaven to intercede on our behalf and to rule and defend us through history. from heaven, but here it seems that this same picture is being used now to talk of his return to judge the living and the dead. And truly, when he returns, it will be as when he went up into the clouds. It will be an upward look that will behold him. He will come down from heaven, riding on the clouds his chariot to execute judgment on the nations. and to send forth his angels to gather all his elect wherever they're dispersed throughout the whole world. And as he does so, a great trumpet blast, like on Mount Sinai, will alert the nations that judgment is at hand. That which announced the revelation of the law and the giving of it will announce then the judgment according to the law at the end of days. In other words, it's going to be obvious. You won't be able to miss it. There's no point in speculating about it. But our hearts should be captured, even enraptured by this, the consummation of the kingdom. When Christ will put to end all wars and death and sorrows of his people and judge righteously and finally, ushering in then the kingdom of glory, the kingdom of grace having completed its course. Christ argues here in giving these signs of his return, he's arguing by way of contrast, contrasting what will happen in the days of the apostles with the very obvious signs of his return at the end of days. And then he gives, in verses 32 to 35, this parable of the fig tree as a picture of the kingdom's, the source of the kingdom's resilience. Let me explain. He says, now learn from the parable of the fig tree. When its branches already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So you too, when you see all these things, recognize that he's near. Now he's referring back to all these things, which I've told you about before in the terms of the destruction of Jerusalem, all these things, that judgment is near. But also all these other things I've just told you, recognize that judgment is near right at the door. The perspective has collapsed in on itself. And now he's kind of coming back to the original of the disciples, of the relationship between these two events. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. This generation, referring to the disciples' generation, will not pass away until the destruction of Jerusalem takes place. But heaven and earth, though it passes away, his words will not pass away, and thus the kingdom will remain resilient, even through many trials and tribulations. The picture of the fig tree introduces his final statement of the main thing, that is Christ's word is sure and steadfast, utterly reliable and faithful. It's trustworthy. You can ground all your hopes in it. This picture of the fig tree, it may be a picture of the promised fruitfulness of the kingdom of heaven. That though Jerusalem is destroyed and laid waste, though that fig tree, such as the one he cursed before, is cut down and destroyed because it bears no fruit, though it looks so lively, Yet the fig tree which he's planted as a master gardener is going to bear forth much fruit and thus hope and endure and persist in the ministry to which you've been called. That's his message to them. That's his message to us. And this is very useful not just at the macro level for world missions or keeping our hopes alive even in the midst of worldly sorrows and geopolitical difficulties, wars and catastrophes and all the like, but it's actually very useful to bear this principle in mind at the local level of the church. For there will come times of difficulty at Antioch. We've already faced a few. But there will come even more and perhaps greater times of difficulty. And at those times, especially in this country with cars and voluntary societies, it's very easy to say, you know what? I'm out of here. There's no hope there. But in what do we trust and hope? If the word of Christ is open and declared, if the gospel is preached here at the ends of the earth, we can trust that fruit will be born by it and so we persevere and we endure and we hope even through the trials or the conflicts that we have as a church. The ultimate question that's asked here is who commands not your computer, but who commands your heart? Who commands your heart? Whose word is authoritative and accurate to produce fruit in your heart, in our fellowship, in our families, in our communities? Who can address your worries, your anxieties, your concerns, your frustrations? Who can bring consolation and comfort by their word, the word of self-help gurus? The word of politicians, the word of salesmen, or the word of Christ? Who defines your goals, your pursuits, your pleasures, your hopes, and your dreams? On what do you hang your hopes? On degrees or accolades or fulfillment or success in the world? Perhaps a ministerial call or a position in the church? What are we putting our hopes and dreams in? Is it Christ Jesus and his kingdom? Is it his glory and his honor? The first generation of the church was preserved in Jerusalem during that great destruction, largely because they heeded Christ's word and fled when it was time to flee. ultimately because of God's electing decree to preserve them. And just as his word proved abundantly true to them, so it continues to prove true, reliable, and good to us. And it's been that way through all of church history. So let us, therefore, hold fast the word of our King, the utterly reliable word of Christ Jesus, and persevere, knowing that the reliability of Christ's word guarantees the resilience of Christ's kingdom until He returns. Endure through persecutions, difficulties, setbacks, and conflicts, yes, for He will bring about a glorious reversal of all our sorrows and woes and trials in His time, in His way, by His means, according to His Word. And in that, brothers and sisters, we can have great hope. That's the message of the Olivet Discourse. That is what Christ is communicating to His disciples, a useful, very practical teaching. to guide us in ministry together as we pursue the advancement of the gospel and the extension of his kingdom, even to the ends of the earth. Let's stand together and pray. Oh, Lord, our God in heaven, you are utterly good to us. And though we are undeserving of your word, yet you've given it to us. And we thank you, Lord, for the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of the risen and ascended Christ who is yet to come. We thank you for the Spirit's ministry in making your word clear to us and applying it to our hearts that we might endure with steadfast hope And we pray that you would strengthen us according to your word such that you would continue to be exalted here at Antioch and to the ends of the earth. In Christ's name we pray, amen. Thank you for listening to this message from Antioch Presbyterian Church. For more information about Antioch, visit us at our website at antiochpca.com.