shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days. But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be. Except those days should be shorted, there should no flesh be saved. And if any man shall say unto you, O here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together Thus far in the reading of the Word of God. Let us pray. Word of Thy Truth, the words of our Lord Jesus as recorded by Thy Holy Spirit. We pray that we may receive them, give us good understanding, and give us wisdom as we open these words tonight, that they may be a blessing unto our souls, that we may be challenged in our faith, and that we may find We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Beloved congregation, the times that we live in appear to be very volatile. We hear of wars and rumors far away in the world, but modern technology brings them into our living room where we can see things that are happening, various things happening in our own land, Canada and the United States and Great Britain, and they can make us anxious, and we're not even present there. What would it be like if these things actually happened on your own Everybody wanted their own way. And we can think about countries, military countries, where they exhibit their military strength and put it on display for people, make them all come out and see the tanks and the soldiers. I have no idea really what that is like. I don't think very many of you, if any of you, have actually experienced that. We have at least accounts and we have some video recordings of those things. But even if that were to happen, if one day a military tank were to drive down your street and soldiers were parading, the Lord tells you to keep your expectations upon the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ. In many ways, as we're going through this chapter, it may seem like we're being repetitive, and Christ himself repeats the same things over and over again, because we are often very slow to acknowledge them and slow to believe them, until they actually happen, until they're actually occurring right before us. And the Lord says, in times of peace, now is the time to be aware. 29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. 30 And then shall appear the sight of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Great oppression of the Lord's people specifically, just before His return, it made them very, very dark as far as the hope of Christ's return. And yet the Lord's people are going to be given that faith that is necessary at that time to know that Christ is, has not forgotten them. He is their Savior. And this is literally true. This is actually true. He's going to come. for them at a time when others may say, where is your God? He's forgotten you, he's left you behind. And the coming of the Lord is going to upset the natural order of creation. This may be literal language, may be figurative language, but Jesus said, give her light, the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." So everything is going to be in turmoil. It's going to be unexpected. It's going to be supernatural. of man in heaven. And what is the sign? You might wonder, what is the sign of the Son of Man? But I think I would have to say that the sign is the coming of Christ himself. And we've seen earlier how the Lord Jesus has taught us that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. They shall not have any sign, but the sign So if they're saying, well, I'm going to wait for those signs just before Christ comes, then I'm going to become a Christian, and then I'll be swept up into heaven. Some people may have that plan, and that's not the way salvation works at all. Salvation now is the day of salvation, says the Lord Jesus. Now is the day when you hear my voice, you repent from your sins. And so this is a sign that the wedding of the Lamb is going to take place. things that the church has talked about for thousands of years is actually about to happen. Here is the Lord Jesus. Every eye will see him, every knee will bow. It's a sign that the Lord Jesus is most certainly the fulfillment of all the Messianic prophecies. It's gonna be a sign to Jew and to Gentile. It's gonna be a sign that God delights in his son. could be a sign that God shows forth that everything that Jesus said, regardless of how amazing it might be, has actually come to pass. And this is that wonderful day. It's a sign that justice will now be served by him who was once the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The man that sinners mocked and crucified will come in power and Great Lord, and judgment will be executed. Justice will be done. This is a difficult thing. Even the book of Proverbs says, gives the idea that justice delayed is justice denied. Justice is to be swift. That's one of the anxieties we have, difficulties, frustrations that we have when someone is convicted, Lord, beloved, God is going to judge with a perfect memory, and we are going to wait for that day of justice. Why do the heathen rage? We wonder why. Why do the wicked reign? Why do they prevail? be the judge of all, and He's going to appear in power and great glory. That is going to happen, and there's no question, there must be no question in your mind that that's true. And I believe the number one reason why you must believe that is because Jesus said that this same Jesus will return in like manner to you as you have seen Him go. of the earth, all of those who thought their deliverance was going to come from political leaders, from kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers, they're going to say our hope was in vain. And not only is there just annihilation after somebody dies, there is life after death. And there is, in a way, you can say there's eternal life for everybody. eternity in hell under the judgment of God, and for others it will be eternal life in the presence of God, in the love of God, in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they shall, all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, they shall see him come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And then was revelation the biographies of the great men of the world, the biographies of the great kings of the world. This is the king above all those kings. He's the lord above all the lords of the earth. And this mighty king, as great a king as may have overcome many lands, Christ is the greater king. He's the king over all those kings. And beloved, do you believe that he's reigning over those kings right now? the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Chancellor of Germany, of all the nations of the Earth, the President of Russia, all these great men who seem to have great power. Christ is at this moment ruling over them, isn't he? He is governing the affairs of history in such a way as to what? To prepare for his coming. His coming is a culmination together. And all, whatever, even the evil and the wickedness that the kings and the rulers of the world are doing are exactly what God has ordained to make His kingdom all the more glorious. So we walk by faith, believing that this great So not only is there glory in Christ's return, but there's a gathering of Christ's elect. Verse 31, And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now we're in a parable of the fig tree, when his branches the doors. So this gathering is going to be by the angels every confidence that it will happen. It's exactly going to happen in just the way the Lord Jesus Christ has said. there are people who are so wicked and proud that they are willing to persecute them. They see such an offense in the gospel, in this simple life, the life of a Christian is simple, and they see someone who has that don't line up with maybe even personal convictions. We said in Psalm 62 of those who are the enemies of the church. People don't like someone who is determined to do what is right in the sight of the Lord. You're going to suffer persecution if you're going to be resolved to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord. But God says, I'm going to preserve every one of them. He calls them again. We've come across this word before. He calls them His elect. It's a special name that He gives them. Matthew doesn't draw back. Jesus doesn't draw back. The Holy Spirit doesn't withdraw from using this word elect. It describes God's people. We are His elect. It's not a terminology of pride. I'm elect of the Lord. It's extremely humbling. the elect of the Lord. And so there is then in these words also that comfort. The Lord is going to care for his church. The world may ignore you, the world may even persecute and attack you, but Jesus loves you. And isn't that a comfort then? I'm loved of the Lord. love, but a love that no human being could possibly ever give to me. This is the hope that we find throughout the scriptures, the comfort. Paul tells the Philippians, Philippians 3 verse 20, for our conversation or our citizenship is in heaven. For once also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working, whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Does that comfort you? Just say it any longer, and you're the lust of flesh and I'm going to be set before you. Our citizenship is in heaven. And one day our vile bodies will be changed. Paul tells Titus, henceforth there is laid out for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also, with hypocrisy, I've had it, and I can hardly wait for the Lord Jesus to come. He says, sorry that I said Paul to Timothy, he says tonight, he's looking for that blessed hope, Thessalonians had a great deal of difficulty understanding the nature of the Lord's Second Coming, what it would be, and how to prepare. But in 1 Thessalonians 4, he says in verse 14, For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent or precede them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout in the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them come forth one another with these words, the Lord is coming again. Although Isaiah, and I think it's Amos, who talks about those who are anticipating the day of the Lord, and they don't know what it's going to be. They just know it's going to be kind of a good thing, and a glorious thing for Israel. But he says, for some of you, it's going to be a day of great judgment. of the world. And so you have to be careful how you understand the day of the Lord and that you're receiving it and expecting it in Christ Jesus alone. It's for the elect alone that this is going to be a glorious day. It's for the elect alone who can comfort one another with these words, the day of to watch by giving the parable of the fig tree. He says when its leaves begin to grow, it signals that summer is coming. Notice there's the tender leaves, here comes summer. He says in the same way, know that when you see these signs coming about, that the end is near. Even at the door, it's about to happen. So there's that suddenness again of being prepared the being occupied until the Lord comes. So we can live that way in this life. We've got to live that way spiritually as well with the confidence that these things, whether Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things shall be fulfilled. And this is the verse we mentioned at the beginning as we started our study of Matthew chapter 24. And it is a problem that has vexed the Lord's people for many years. And perhaps it's from trying to explain it in too much detail, but I want to present one explanation to you that I think is faithful to the Lord and His Word. So there are those that say, as I said last week, here's the Lord Jesus talking to His disciples, And he says to them, verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. So some people say that this refers to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This generation, these men that are standing right there are not going to see death. Everything was fulfilled. Some of them even say the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ was fulfilled in 70 AD. People that believe that have written books to that end. We call them preterists. We call them full preterists. They believe that everything, virtually everything in the Bible about Christ's second coming has already been fulfilled. The elect were gathered from the four winds of the earth. I don't read anywhere that Christ appeared with the trumpets, sound of the trumpet and the archangel. Very hard to reconcile. In a way, it's the easiest way out, but it leads to a multitude of complications. And so, there is a grievous error. Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching that the resurrection that that was a heresy. And Dr. King swept aside, swept aside by it. So this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled. Would it not rather refer to the Jewish nation? Because the word generation can also mean race. That the Jews are going to remain This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled. And there are and have been many saints who believe that there will be a great gathering of the saints, a great conversion of Israel before the Lord Jesus Christ returns again. And when we were talking about the various views that the kingdom of God is going to grow and grow and grow until Christ returns. And those are the post-millennialists, and those who believe that the church is going to be in a lowest state until Christ gloriously appears to redeem his people. Those are the pre-millennialists, and we believe that he's going to establish his kingdom upon the earth. So let me take you for a moment Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. And I want to review with you some of the words that Paul gives as he's been talking about the pointing some to salvation and some to condemnation. He talks about the preaching of the word in Romans 10. He says, the means is necessary. How shall they believe without a preacher? And then he says, here's this great tree rooted in the covenant, I think likely in Abraham, and here's this tree, and you Gentiles in Rome specifically, And some of the Jews have been removed from that tree. They've been pruned. We'll pick it up, verse 24. For if thou were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more shall these which be the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? Excuse me. For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits. that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. So there is a view that says that people grew up, was extended to all the Gentiles from every town, tribe, and nation. And so there's a spiritual Israel today, and I do agree with that as well, but there's also, Romans 11 says there's also a liberal Israel. And I believe, not necessarily every single Jew, but the majority of Jews, the vast majority of Jews living at that particular time before the Lord Jesus returns are going to acknowledge the Lord Jesus as their Messiah, and as their Savior, and they're going to be wonderfully saved. And that is often why some of our dear friends, even of old, Can we think of Robert Meringa Cheyne? Remember Robert Meringa Cheyne? So a wonderful young man, holy, devoted to the Lord. And he did so much for the Lord. He died when he was 27 years old. 27 years old. And did so much for the Lord. And one of the things he did, when a time when travel was very difficult, he went. I believe he went to Israel to minister. of Alfred Edersheim, who was a Jew, very scholarly man, who wrote some wonderful histories of Israel that benefited the church. So there's a burden for the Jews. It's one of the reasons why, again, in pastoral prayer from time to time, we remember and pray for the conversion of the Jews, and of Muslims as well. They're a large group in our own society, But they do need to be converted, but the Jews also, the Jews must be converted. They don't have some kind of a membership in heaven by virtue of their lineage. Say, well, I'm of the tribe of Benjamin, I'm of the tribe of Judah, so I'm getting to heaven. No, they have to get there the same way that you and I get there, and that's through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God is going to bless them, I believe, with salvation. The Jews, he's going to do an enormous work of conversion. And that's hard to believe if you know anything of what's happening in Israel today. Because Israel is one of the wickedest nations on the earth. There's no morality there. There's great immorality. There's an open rejection of God, even great atheism. And if you think, well, they're beyond salvation, that's true, isn't it? Humanly speaking, it's absolutely true. But I was beyond salvation, too, until the Lord had mercy on my soul. I would never have been saved except for the grace of God. And so can God save the Jewish nation. I believe He can. And they are also people's friends throughout the world. We can gather them together. And it would be wonderful to be alive and to hear the news, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be great to be alive and to hear the news? Jews are being saved. They're coming. If there's any Christian artist what you believe about the end times, no Christian would say that that's not a good thing. So we trust that it will be a thing that we will look forward to as well. Let me go on here in Romans 11 for just a little bit. Verse 27, for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. And that's those, the covenant promises in Ezekiel, Jeremiah. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sakes. For the gift and the calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy, through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. And then he erupts into this beautiful doxology, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. this doxology with me in your heart as you think about the mysteries of God's, of Christ's return. All the things that we don't know. All the timing. What happened in 70 AD? What is still going to be fulfilled? And they all seem to be kind of mixed together. Imagine Chapter 24. I believe that they are. That some of those things did happen and some of those things I believe that everything that Jesus said is going to happen at his appointed time, even though I, in my weakness, can't figure out all the details. And I believe that there are many people who are too arrogantly saying exactly how these things are going to be fulfilled in detail. There's a point, beloved, where you and I have to just step back spiritual knowledge, no, we have the knowledge, we have the facts, we have the words, and yet how it's all going to happen is a mystery. And so Paul, I think this doxology starts from what he was saying in Romans chapter 9 about election, and comes in here about how he's going to bring, he's brought in Gentiles into this gospel tree, and he has drafted in Gentiles, now one day he's going to the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Have you? Who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Have you given God advice? Has anyone ever given God advice? He doesn't need a counselor. He is almighty. of the Gospel and the intricacies and what's going to happen, the depth and the height and the breadth and the glory and the beauty and the amazing things that God is doing that can never be encompassed in our finite minds, but God is going to do them. He's going to accomplish them, and He knows that, and He's certain of that. And so we read then back in Matthew chapter 24, again, this generation shall but my words shall not pass away. So again, God's word is preeminent in the heart and the mind and the life of a Christian. God's revealed word. Your Bible is the most precious book that you own. Jesus says these things are as sure as anything to happen. And what is happening in these days, of the coming of the Lord. Whatever ungodly man may do now, there will be no scoffing, no jesting at Christ, no infidelity in the last day. The servants of Jesus may well wait patiently. Their Master shall one day be acknowledged, King of Kings, by all the world." Is this certainly going to happen? It's one of the reasons we're gathered for worship. We're waiting for the coming again of the Lord. The Old Testament in Isaiah 40 verse 8, the prophet said, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand forever. So always being the hope of God's people, God's revealed word. Doesn't Peter really echo the words of Isaiah in 1 Peter 1? For all flesh is this grass, and all the glory of man I could go on and on about the changes in the gospel. We addressed that a little bit this morning. People are changing the gospel because they think people are changing. People are advancing. People are more progressive. They're more modern. They're more advanced in so many ways. We have to have a different gospel that deals with them where they are. No, man has never changed. Your neighbor is no different from Adam. In 6,000 years, nothing has changed in the heart of man. The heart of man is exactly as rebellious as the day that Adam fell in the Garden of Eden. His name is exactly the same. He's full of sin, he's vile in the sight of the Lord, and so are you and I, apart from Christ. It's only Christ that can redeem the sinful soul. The gospel never changes because man's faith has never changed. Shall we this night, too, confess thy name? and gladness that is brought unto us by the hope of heaven. We pray that this joy may also be evident to those about us. Hear our prayer, forgive us our sin, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.