Would you now take your Bibles and open them to Luke chapter 21. Luke chapter 21, we have for several weeks now been looking at the teaching of Jesus in this last week of His life as He is preparing Himself, the people who are hearing Him, and His disciples for the cross. And we began to see that he's preparing them last week for this time when he's not going to be here with them anymore. And the things that are to come. And they're startling. Luke chapter 21. I'll start reading in verse 20. Jesus said, But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those who are in the midst of the city must leave. Those who are in the country must not enter the city because these things because these are days of vengeance. So that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days, for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and will be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. There will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars. And on the earth, dismay among nations and perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves. Men fainting from fear. And the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world The powers of the heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the sign of the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up, lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. Father God, this morning, it is to Your Word we turn our focus now. It is to Your Word that instructs us It's to Your Word that tells us of the things that are to come. You have told us in advance so that even as we see these things and the things that we've seen in weeks past, we do not have fear, but peace, because our God is in control. We praise You for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, as we open this text, as we begin to read, starting in verse 20 this morning, we are on Wednesday of Passion Week, and we are late in the day. And you remember the events of the week up to this point. It began with Palm Sunday and Jesus, really what we call the triumphal entry as He enters Jerusalem. And that was followed by Monday morning where Jesus again reenters Jerusalem and He cleanses the temple. He literally shuts down all the business that's going there, cleans the place out, and He stops the abuse of the Jewish system, the abuse of the priests that's being carried out upon the people of the nation of Israel. It's their abuse through a system of work salvation. And Jesus, during these few days, used the temple for its right purpose, which was worship and teaching. Worship and teaching. In fact, during these three days, every possible sect of the Jewish leadership came to Him and tried to discredit Him. They tried to say things that would make Him look bad, things that would be perplexities that He wouldn't be able to solve, things that would embarrass Him in front of the people. And one by one, He defeated and dismantled them all. And He showed the people of Israel the depth of the hypocrisy of the Jewish system of salvation by works. And as He and the disciples are leaving the temple for the last time, they are captivated by the buildings that they see. They're enthralled by it, the gorgeousness of it, the ornateness of it. The fact that these buildings, made of polished white stone, were dripping with gold, almost literally. Exorbitant gifts had been added to it to make the nature of it all even more impressive. As we said, they were captivated by it and they pointed out to Jesus. And as they're leaving, he looks at them, he turns back to them and says, listen to me, you need to understand something about these buildings and about this place itself. It's all going to burn. It's all going to get torn down. It's all going to get destroyed. Why? Well, Luke 19, verses 43 and 44 tell us it's all because of the rejection of the Messiah. So now Jesus is leaving and He needed to prepare them. He needed to prepare them for what it was going to be like with Him gone. He's facing the cross. He's facing the wrath of God. Literally, hell brought to Him. But He is not in this hour concerned about Himself. He's concerned about them. He's concerned about preparing them for what life is going to be like in this in-between time. The time in between when He is leaving and when He comes back. We saw last week that there's going to be wars and famines and earthquakes and disasters and persecution for believers. Christians are going to be hated by all people, Jesus said, because of His name. In other words, we're persecuted because we belong to Him. His name is stamped on us as believers, and because of that, we're going to endure persecution. And what's He tell us? That's normal. That's all part of the game. Don't panic. Don't panic. Why? Because He's in control. And now in verses 20 and 28, we pick up again this morning in His communication to His disciples, and He's telling them about the times that are going to take place after that. In other words, this is the time immediately before His return. It's the time of immense distress, the time of immense tribulation, and an agony unlike anything else that has ever been in history before it or since then. Matthew 24 v. 21, Jesus is talking about this, and He says, "...for then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will." So this is the final time before His return and what it's going to be like before He returns to rule the world. It is described in Scripture as the time of Jacob's distress or Israel's trouble. Jeremiah chapter 30 verses 5 to 7 tells us that. Those verses say, "...For thus says the Lord, I have heard a sound of terror, of dread, and there is no peace. Ask now and see if a male can give birth. So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in childbirth? And why have all faces turned pale? Alas, for that day is great. There is none like it. It is the time of Jacob's distress." That's Israel. But he will be saved from it. During that time, that seven-year period that we refer to the Great Tribulation, God is going to judge the world severely for its sin and for its rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Israel will be persecuted intensely by Satan and by the world. And then, at the end of those seven years, Christ will return. In fact, the central idea of this text is that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to judge the world and to rescue His people. And beloved, that has profound impact on your life today even though you're not going to live in those times. This morning I want you to see this truth through two headings. Heading number one is this. We're going to call it days of vengeance. Days of vengeance. That's verses 20-24. And then second of all, days of glory. Days of glory. That's verses 25 to 28. Alright, so let's look at those again. Days of vengeance. Verse 20. Again, Jesus said, When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. And those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Those who are in the midst of the city must leave. Those who are in the country must not enter the city, because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled." Stop there for now. The first thing I think that's helpful that you need to understand about this text is this is not A.D. 70. He's not talking about 70 A.D. when the Romans came in and sacked Jerusalem. We saw that last week in verses five to seven. We saw there that Jerusalem was crushed by the Roman army, the temple was burned, it was destroyed, and they burned and destroyed it, and all of these marvelous white polished stones that made up the temple were subjected to intense heat to the point that the stones cracked and crumbled, and so that the Roman army could get the gold that was in between the stones that was used for mortar. Obliterated. Not exactly what Jesus said. Not one stone left upon another. That was in verses 5 to 7, verses 8 to 19. We saw what's normal for the age in which we live. That's what he talked about. That's what he told us about. That's what we needed to prepare our hearts for, right? Then the next event on the prophetic calendar is what we find in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16-18. He doesn't talk about that here because he's not dealing with the church, he's dealing with the nation of Israel. But the next event after that, after the age in which we live on the prophetic calendar, is what we would call the rapture. And this is Jesus coming to take His church to be with Him so that the church does not go through that time of testing tribulation upon the rest of the world. 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16-18 says, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. The dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds. And where do we meet the Lord? In the air. So that we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. That's not the second coming, that's the rapture. There's a distinct difference between the two, and there's seven years that separate those two events. And after that, there is going to be a time of hyper-intense turmoil, of persecution for the nation of Israel, of persecution for anyone who does happen to come to faith in Christ, and judgment of the entire world. And that is given to us, that's revealed to us through the book of Revelation in chapters 6-19. And in that, what's going on is the Lord Jesus Christ is purging His kingdom. He is purging His kingdom of rebellion and unbelief. And now verse 20 that we're looking at today, where we started in Luke 21, verse 20, that is toward the end of that time. And toward the end of that time, Jerusalem is again in peril. And this time is different from the others that it's in peril, because this is the ultimate time of wrath, the ultimate time of destruction, of global cataclysm. And God is judging here the world for its sin. And the world is trying to do its best, although it won't be able to, to ignore that judgment. And Jerusalem and the Jewish people and the entire world, in fact, have never seen pain and suffering and destruction that's on this scale before. Look what this is like in the text. Verse 20, it tells you Jerusalem is going to be surrounded by armies. That's plural. The implication is more than one. It's more than one source of attacking armies. It's more than Rome in A.D. 70, as devastating as they were. This is no comparison. And the people in the nation of Israel, specifically the people in Jerusalem, are going to be looking for natural physical features of the land, of the terrain, to help hide them. They're going to be fleeing to the mountains. They lived then in a time of walled cities. And they had armies within those walled cities so that they had safety and security. And Jesus tells them, don't run into the city. There is no safety there. There is no security there. Back in that day, if you were attacked, you went into the city, you went into your home, you stayed inside the city, so would you be safe? But if you're in Judea, when this comes during this time, don't go to the city. Flee to the mountains. You've got to get out. Are you in the middle of the city? You think you're in safety? You're not. There's no safety there. Run to the mountains. Make it difficult to catch you, in other words. Are you in the country? Don't head for the city. That's what people would normally do in their day. If they were in the country and there was an army that was attacking, the way that they sought safety was to get out of its way, run into the walls of the city. Don't go there, Jesus says. Why? Because this is a unique time. A unique time. There's no other time like it. We saw this earlier in Matthew 24, 21. Again, Jesus said there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. This is the time of the greatest tribulation that's going to overtake mankind. This is the time where God Himself pours His judgment upon this whole world. And in fact, in Matthew 24-22, Jesus tells us that unless God had ended those days, no human life or any other life would be able to survive. Jesus says in Matthew 24-22, unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved. So this can't be A.D. 70. This is way beyond that. This is way bigger than that. Revelation 3.10 identifies this judgment as over the whole world. Jesus there is speaking to His church in Revelation 3.10. He says, Because you have kept the word of My perseverance, I will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. So verse 23, these are days of vengeance. It's not the days of AD 70. These are the days of vengeance. And when Jesus said that, that would have triggered His disciples' mind because they would have understood that's an Old Testament expression. It's an Old Testament expression of the vengeance of God for the sin of mankind in the end times. And it was so clear. Isaiah 34, verse 8. It says, "...for the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause in Zion." He goes on, Isaiah 61, verse 2. This is what Messiah's mission was. Isaiah 61, 2, "...to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God." Isaiah chapter 63 verse 4, for the day of vengeance was in my heart, that is God speaking. And then Micah 5 15, I will execute vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations which have not obeyed. As we said before, this is the time of Jacob's distress, Jacob's trouble, Israel's reckoning. Jeremiah 30 v. 7 says, Alas, for that day is great. There is none like it. It is the time of Jacob's distress. As we mentioned before, the church, we won't have to worry about going through this. The church is removed because Christ is going to take us to be with Him before this happens. Why? This is Jacob's trouble. It's the earth's distress for their sin and Israel's forsaking of Messiah. And really, that judgment that was prefigured in 70 A.D. is going to culminate in a horrific tribulation for the nation of Israel. But for Israel, the good news is some will be saved from it. Some will be saved from it. And the ones who are the bulk of Israel will come to faith in Christ during the tribulation. In fact, so many of them that physically survived the tribulation will come to faith in Christ that the Scripture when it's talking about Israel and its salvation during this time just basically says that all Israel will be saved. Romans 11, 25-27, it says that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved. It's talking about Israel in the time of the tribulation. Just as it is written, the Deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them when I take away their sins. And then just one other side note, this can't be A.D. 70 because in verse 23, Jesus tells them that all things which are written will be fulfilled at this time. So it's the end of prophecy. That didn't happen in A.D. 70. It means the fulfillment of all that God has written. Now this time is especially hard for the most vulnerable among them. Look at verses 23 and 24. Jesus says, Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babes in those days, for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword. They will be led captive into all the nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. This is going to be a tough time if you're a woman who is pregnant or a woman who's nursing a baby. We've recently gone on vacations, and being a dad who has eight kids, I know what it's like to go on vacation and have to stop every couple hours just so we can feed babies, right? That takes a while when you're traveling, doesn't it? Adds significant time to the journey. What about people who are trying to run from persecution? It's virtually impossible. Trying to flee judgment and just the onslaught that's brought by mankind. According to verses 23 and 24, there's going to be a great slaughter of the innocent. You know, mothers and children. Christian martyrs slaughtered without distinction are concerned for the weak or for the innocent. People taken captive, people dispersed among the nations. How long does this last? Well, Jesus tells them, until the times of the Gentiles are complete. What's that mean? What's the times of the Gentiles? Well, it's the time from when Israel was first taken into captivity until Christ's return. It's the time of Israel's judgment by God. Now what are some implications of this for us? I want to give you three this morning. Number one, understand this. that God's Word is sure and it can be trusted. God's Word is sure and it can be trusted. God has told us these days are coming. He's spoken of it to us through the Old Testament prophets. He confirmed it by the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're looking at here in Luke 21. He spoke of it again through the Apostle Paul prophetically in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. And finally, He confirmed it through the Apostle John in the book of Revelation. And there is absolute consistency within the Scripture. And the prophecies of the Old Testament, and the prophecies of Christ, and the prophecies that are contained in the New Testament. Though they are written over a span of thousands of years. And it all points to the rock solid stability of the Word of God. You can trust it. You can rely upon it. Whatever God says will happen, will happen. You have an anchor through the storms of life. It is the scripture. Matthew, Chapter 24, verse 35, Jesus said, Heaven or Earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Do you cling to the word of God? Do you know that it's true above everything else? Do you know that no matter what comes, God is true even if that makes every man on earth a liar? No matter what your eyes see, the Word of God tells us what is really right. It tells us the way things really are. So His Word, sure. The second implication is this. This gives us comfort. This gives us comfort. You say, well, pastor, how in the world does this kind of judgment, this kind of disaster bring comfort? He's told us these things in advance. He's told us this is coming. So that when it does. You'll know it's from God. Listen, Isaiah chapter 46 verses 8 to 11. God says this, remember this and be assured. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things long ago. I am God. There is no other. I am God. There is none like Me. Declaring the end from the beginning. In other words, literally declaring what was going to happen at the end of time from before the beginning of time. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying My purpose will be established. And I will accomplish all My good pleasure. calling a bird of prey from the east, calling the man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken. Truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it. Surely I will do it." Beloved Isaiah the prophet, God is speaking through him there, and He says, listen, you think the birds fly around in the sky willy-nilly? My sovereignty is in control of that. He's decreed what's going to happen at the end and the beginning. He's completed all that He has ever set out to do, and He will complete every single word of the prophecies of Scripture as they are laid out in Scripture. He will. Nothing stops His plans. Nothing is wiser than His counsel. Because our God is absolutely sovereign. He holds you in the palm of His hand. And no matter what schemes of man happen or not, or what disasters come or don't come, our God has given us a record of His sovereignty. It is contained in the Scripture. And the world and the universe are unfolding exactly as He has planned. And they will continue to do so. Tribulation, distress, persecution. Those things come. But there is tremendous comfort that our God has decreed all of that. Whatever comes is for your good and His glory. Do you trust Him in that? Do you rest in Him? The third implication for you is this. If you were here this morning and don't know that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior, you need to turn from your sin. You need to turn from your sin and trust in Christ alone to save you. You need to repent. Why? Because this time is coming. This time that we've been talking about this morning is coming. The tribulation is coming. And we don't know when Christ is going to return to take His church. We don't know when the tribulation is going to begin. And you want to be with Christ during that time. You don't want to be here. You want to be with Christ for all eternity. The time of this tribulation is judgment for the sin of humanity. You don't want to be here. You need Christ. You say, well, how do you come to Christ? Well, the Scripture is very clear. The Scripture tells us that we're all sinners, right? I'm as much of a sinner as you are. Maybe I'm worse. But what matters is that God sent Christ to this earth to take the penalty for my sin, which was hell. And He died on the cross in my place. And He died on the cross in the place of everyone who would ever place their faith and trust in Him. So what's the command of Scripture? Salvation isn't listed as an option, it's listed as a command. The command of Scripture is trust in Christ alone. Romans 10.9 says, If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So the command is, turn from your sin. Trust in Christ alone to save you. Alright, that's the days of vengeance. Second this morning, I want you to see days of glory. The days of glory, look at verse 25. Then Jesus said, there will be signs in sun and moon and stars. And on the earth, dismay among nations and perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves. This is Luke's synopsis of Jesus, what we call the Olivet Discourse. It's really Luke's synopsis of Matthew 24, which is Jesus' synopsis of Revelation 6-19. So this is kind of a synopsis of a synopsis. Signs in the sun and the moon and the stars are the judgments of God for those who dwell upon the earth. And that phrase, those who dwell upon the earth, those of you who were here for my Wednesday night study in the book of Revelation, you know that's a technical phrase from that book that always refers to unbelievers. Always. What are those signs? Well, the book of Revelation is clear. You have things like meteors falling to the earth, massive hailstones, the darkening of the sky so the sun and the moon don't give their light at various times throughout the tribulation. And the cataclysm that those events bring is unimaginable. And the destruction is monumental that's going to take place on this earth. During that time, the earth is going to break and fracture. New mountains will form. Old ones will be leveled. The oceans together with the life that are in them are going to be ravaged. Billions will die around the world. And those who will survive the judgments will envy the dead. I wish that they had died too. In fact, Revelation 9 verse 6 says, in those days men will seek death. They will try to die. Men will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die and death flees from them. So what you have going on in the first part of the judgments of Revelation is God is pouring out these judgments and millions and millions and millions are dying in them. Then you have people as a result of that who seek death. They won't be allowed to die. Now, Jesus tells you here in verses 25 and 26, there are really two responses here and one Circumstance if you will The first response of men the first reaction of people to this judgment is dismay Dismay again verse 25 there will be signs in earth moon sun Moon and stars and on the earth dismay among the nations Dismay among the nations that word only appears two times in the entire Bible and it's talking about severe emotional distress and It's literally unbelief at what they have just witnessed. Staggering from what they've seen. This is really a description of utter terror is what this is. It's going to be unrelenting for these people. That they will literally be in such a level of dismay that they will go out of their minds because of the sinful atrocities and the depth of the judgments that God is going to bring. The second word he uses to describe the heart of people this time is perplexity. Perplexity, that's a word that's only used here in the New Testament. And the verb form means to be at a total loss to comprehend the reality of something you've just seen. Something that you've seen is so beyond your ability to comprehend and so large in scale that you can't possibly begin to wrap your mind around it and you're in shocked awe. And the text says here it's perplexity because of the destruction that God has brought to the oceans. How does that happen? What happens to the oceans? The Earth sustains enough impact from objects from space like meteors, the Earth can be knocked off its axis. If that happens, oceans begin to flood mainland and empty themselves. It's just overwhelming impact of awe at the mighty judgments of God. In spite of the magnitude of those judgments, in spite of the magnitude of these statements, The disciples here don't respond to Jesus. It's interesting. And we have to ask ourselves the question, why? Why were they not shocked by this? Well, because this isn't the first time they've heard things like this. If they understood the Old Testament, if they read it, they've heard this before. Jesus wasn't telling them new things. Listen to this. Isaiah 13, verses 6-13. Isaiah says, For the day of the Lord is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands will fall limp. Every man's heart will melt. They will be terrified. Pains and anguish will take hold of them. They will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another in astonishment, their faces aflame. Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. Cruel with fury and burning anger to make the land a desolation, and He will exterminate its sinners from it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light. The sun will be dark when it rises. The moon will not shed its light. Thus, I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless. I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold." Did you hear that? It's the number of people that are going to die. and mankind scarcer than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his burning anger." Does that sound like anything you've heard? See the consistency between the Old Testament and the words of Jesus and the prophecies of the New Testament? Isaiah 24, verse 1, it says, Behold, the Lord lays the earth waste. He devastates it. He distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. I don't know how anybody can say there's not going to be a tribulation and not take that literally. Isaiah 24, verses 18-20. "...Then it will be that he who flees the report of disaster will fall into a pit. When he climbs out of the pit, he will be caught in a snare. For the windows above are open, and the foundations of the earth shake. The earth is broken asunder. The earth is split through. The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard, and it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it. It will fall never to rise again." These weren't weird concepts to them. The Jews were expecting a time before the return of Messiah where God would judge the earth for its sinfulness. They expected that. And what are men going to do in response to this? Verse 26. Men fainting from fear. That word fainting is very interesting. That doesn't just mean to pass out. The Greek word here literally means to breathe out. In other words, to breathe out your last breath. To die. Men will literally see the judgments of God and they will be in such a state of disturbed terror that they will breathe out their last breath and they will die. They will literally be scared to death at the judgment of God. Again, Isaiah 13.8, men will writhe like a woman in labor. They're going to look at one another in terrified astonishment. And simply die from the magnitude of the judgment. They don't even have to be impacted by the judgment. All they have to do is see it. And they die from it. The book of Revelation in chapter 6, it tells us that the men will beg for the caves and the rocks and the mountains to fall on them and crush them in order to hide them from the presence of God. And yet during all of this, the unbelieving heart is so hard that they will understand that this is judgment from God and yet they will not repent. Revelation 9, verse 20, it says, The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands so as to not worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immoralities, nor of their thefts. Can you imagine the hardness of heart? And then after all of that, verse 27, you have the final sign. And the sign of Christ's coming, the final sign of His coming is His coming. Verse 27, then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. That's the arrival of Christ Himself after all of this. All of the heavenly lights are darkened. And after they are darkened, Christ comes in blazing glory of God. And He's going to blast into that darkness and His glory alone is going to light the earth. And the cloud mentioned here that He's going to come back in, a cloud and great power, it's the cloud of glory that shatters the darkness. And against that black backdrop, the blinding full-spectrum glory of God will tear across this planet and His power will be unleashed and it will sweep away the ungodly. Where are we in all this? Well, the Scripture is clear. We ride behind Him on the wake of His glory as He's coming back to earth. That's where we'll be. And we get to watch Him destroy all rebellion and unbelief from His kingdom. Listen to it. Revelation chapter 19, verses 11 to 16. He says, And I saw heaven opened. Behold a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, that's Christ. In righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire. He sees everything. On His head are many diadems, that's crowns. He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. That's a name too wonderful for anybody else to know. He is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood. That's not His blood from the cross. That is the blood of His enemies. And His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, are following Him on white horses." That's us. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations. and He will rule them with a rod of iron, and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. On His robe and His thigh, He has a name, King of kings and Lord of lords." That's His return. Listen to me, this morning, person who is here who doesn't know Christ as their Lord and Savior. You who refuse to repent at the command of Christ. This day of reckoning is coming. I'm begging with you this morning. You need to see this. Jesus is coming back. And everyone will either bow to Him as Lord willingly, Or we will bow to his sovereignty when he crushes all opposition and bends every knee of his enemies before him on that day. It doesn't have to end for you like that. He gives you mercy now and offers you eternal life now. So the command of Scripture again is turn from your rebellion, turn from your sin, and trust in Christ alone to save you. And He will save you now. Now what does this mean for those of us who know Christ? Again, He's coming. Believer, all around you, you see evil advancing. You see evil in this world prevailing. The persecution of believers, the hatred of the world towards us, the mockery of Christ is everywhere. He's going to bring that all to an end. Justice will be served. He will set all things right. You will be vindicated before the world through the person of Jesus Christ. He will finish what He started. And He will end all things exactly as He decreed from before He laid the foundation of the world. Because our God is sovereign in command. And unbelievers see this and they hate it. Unbelievers see this and they don't want to admit it. Unbelievers see this and if they're honest, they're terrified. And well they should be. And that's your ally in evangelism. But we see it. We say amen. Come, Lord Jesus. Look at verse 28. This is the conclusion. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up, lift up your heads because your redemption is drawing near. Jesus says, listen, when you see these things happening, don't fear. Why? Because he's coming back. So lift up your head, Christian. Put steel in your backbone. Don't relent in your calls for the unsaved to repent and believe. Preach this to the unsaved. Isaiah 55 v. 6-7. It says, "...Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on him. And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Acts 20 verses 20 and 21, the Apostle Paul said, I didn't shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly from house to house, solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's our message. Repentance toward God. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if His coming doesn't motivate you to proclaim His gospel to the unsaved, dear friend, I don't know anything that will motivate you. He's coming. Father, this morning, by this knowledge of Your coming, this knowledge of Christ's return, move our feet. By this knowledge of Christ's return, open our mouths. Jesus is coming, and His judgment and His salvation are both with Him. Father, help us to proclaim this for Your glory. Amen.