Amen grab your Bibles turn to Matthew chapter 24 Matthew 2 4 if you have Matthew 44 in your Bible, it's not a Bible We have a trash can back there in the kitchen. You can just toss it in there Because you don't want to be carrying around something That's not the Bible. All right Matthew 24, 2-4 in the book of Matthew. Stand together, please. Matthew 24. All right. Matthew 24. We're just going to read the whole chapter. No, I'm just kidding. We're just going to read the third verse to start off with. It's this is just for getting us started here. So, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, did I say? Yeah, verse three. Yeah. As he sat on the Mount of Olives upon the Mount of Olives. The disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. Thank you for the opportunity to open it tonight. Pray your blessing now in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. All right now. Before I read his intro and get started here, I want to say something. It kind of scares me that he jumps straight to Matthew 24. We're talking tonight about the course of this age. So Matthew 24, I have to give this disclaimer because we're going to go to Matthew 24 a lot tonight from his references. Matthew 24 is not written for the church. At least it's not written for the church today. It was written for the church that Jesus started that was comprised of only Jews at that time. Matthew 24 was written for Israel. It was written for the tribulation saints, not for the other saints. And people that read Matthew 24 like it's written to the Grace Age saints will interpret the rapture as being post-tribulational. I'm just giving you that right out the gate because people say, well, doesn't it say after the tribulation of those days and it talks about a trumpet and all this in Matthew 24? Yes, it talks about those things. And yes, the return of Christ, his second coming when he comes and sets foot on the planet. That is at the end of the tribulation. That's what Matthew 24 applies to directly. Now, are there some concepts in Matthew 24 that apply to us? Yes, the concepts. But you have to very carefully and loosely apply them, understanding that the primary context is Israel, not the Gentiles. Does that make sense? I had to give that disclaimer on the front end because a lot of times we'll use Matthew 24 to talk about imminence, to talk about the things that are going to happen in the last days and such, but understand that Matthew 24 is describing the tribulation. And it's describing the tribulation for those who will be in the tribulation. Israel. And so and also the question that they asked is. Tell us when shall these things be. What things well look at verse one and Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple like hey look at these buildings Jesus look at this this these amazing buildings you know. The buildings that Solomon built and then they were later they were They were exiled and torn down and such or damaged and then they were built back up and then Herod beautify these buildings. Just look at these buildings are beautiful. And Jesus said unto them see ye not all these things. Verily I say unto you that there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Now that prophecy was fulfilled in A.D. 70. fulfilled in AD 70. Y'all know why every single stone got removed? Yeah, because the mortar had gold in it. And the soldiers who destroyed the city wanted the gold. And so they took every stone down and remove the mortar so that they could melt it down, get the get the gold out. So it was inlaid. So, yeah, that's why. But anyhow, verse number three, and he sat upon the Mount of Olives. The disciples came unto him. privately saying, tell us when shall these things be and what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? That's a pretty broad question. OK, what things? The things that he said, right? The temples coming down. OK, so that the answer to this question actually spans. At least 2000 years. From AD 70. to today or next year or whenever the tribulation starts, right? I don't know. I personally, I'm not a date setter, but I personally think it's going to be sooner than 2070, yes. So, you know, you've got all of that time period. It wasn't 1970, obviously, because, you know, he would already be here. He goes in and starts talking about the things that are going to come to pass. So understand when you're looking at Matthew 24, you're looking at like really what you're looking at is you're looking at an answer. He doesn't really fully answer the question of. Of the building coming down. He just says, hey, it's going to happen. Then, but he goes directly to their other question, and that is. His coming and the end of the world. Now, is the tribulation the end of the world? Only as we know it, but not really. Technically, it's just a seven year period at the end of this age before a whole thousand year period with Jesus here. So it's not technically the end of the world, but It is the end of this world, as in this structure of the world. Not physical world, but structure of the world. There will be no Rome. By the end of the Tribulation, this world will not be recognizable by somebody that lived in it before the Tribulation. Not until after the thousand-year reign, but this world, when we talk about the end of the world here, we're not talking about like all the way, all the way at the end when it all burns up and then there's a new heaven and a new earth. We're we're talking about like the the end of and he goes on from chapter 24 to 25 and deals with a lot of those things. And we're not necessarily going to go into all of that today. We're just just kind of I just want to give you the disclaimer about chapter 24 because we could just go through 24 and I could preach through, but we're trying to stick with our course here. So the course of this age, he says, the biblical time period known as the last days refers to a refers in a general way to the present age. All right. So that's the period between the two advents of Christ. And in particular, it pertains particularly to the days of this present age immediately before the return of Jesus Christ. This is where people get confused on some things and we will do our best as we go along to eliminate the confusion. But when we talk about his return, understand that there are two phases of his return. There's the rapture and then there's the return. OK, so there's the full return, right? The rapture is meeting us in the clouds and then there's the full return and that is meeting us at the Mount of Olives, okay? So, we'll get into all of that probably not tonight, okay? We will probably stop before we get to the second coming of the Lord Jesus. Well, unless He comes during the message, then there you go. I would be, man, I'll take a seat. I'll take a seat. We'll just, I'll take a knee. That's what I'll do. So, all right. So the basic outline of the events that will take place during this period, the period of the last days, is given in Matthew 24. And that's, again, the basic outline, like the tribulation for the most part. where the Lord Jesus answered three questions asked of His disciples. These questions are given in verse 3, namely, when shall these things be? Which He answers in verses 4-14. I'll let you look that up on your own. What shall be the sign of thy coming? That's verses 15 through 26, is when he gives that answer. And then, and what shall be the sign of the end of the world? And he gives that answer between verses 27 and 31. Alright? So that's the Basic outline there. So, number one here for tonight, the characteristics of the last days. According to the Lord's answer in verses four through 14, this present age shall be characterized by, we're gonna read verses four through 14 and then we'll reference the other verses as we go through here, okay? So verse four says, and Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name." Isn't that interesting? Hmm. Saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled. For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Only the beginning. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And ye shall be hated. Bless you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall be and shall betray one another and shall hate one another and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. So this is the characteristics of the last days. Number one, there's going to be, or letter A, there's going to be false Christianity. Remember in verse number five? He said people are going to come in his name. And in verse number 11, right? Many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. Letter B, national and international conflict. Have you read the news? Or watched the news or whatever? Yep, so. National and international conflict. The wars that we have seen, well, none of us have seen them, but the wars that the world has seen in the last. 100 and 110 years will say. In the last 110 years. Have been. bigger in magnitude than all of the wars combined before that, since the beginning. That's a big thing. It's a big thing. Now, I will say, as far as conflicts, particular conflicts, the most lives lost in any conflict in American history Most lives of Americans lost in American history is the Civil War, which was before 100 years ago, but that's, we're talking about just Americans. So remember when I was in basic training down at Fort Jackson, we'd be standing there at attention, and you can't look anywhere but right in front of you, and there's a big sign here, lives lost in conflicts, and it had listed how many, and so you're just standing there reading. And so, I didn't memorize how many. There were a lot, a lot. But you know what? The conflict between Russia and Ukraine right now, more lives, more Russian lives, or, well, maybe not lives, more soldiers lost than that in that, just that conflict. Now, again, I don't think it's more lives, but, casualties of war. Yes, sir. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man, there there are videos that will do that that will talk about populated like there's videos that do like that show you how the countries move around like it changes the color and borders and all that stuff over the years. And then I think there's one that gives you populations as it goes. So if not, brother Bella needs to make one. So yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Right, well, like like we talk about the Spanish flu. I was looking the other day because I was curious. I was curious about like COVID. You know how the numbers get. Do you realize that even today the numbers the the lives lost due to COVID the variance it says between 7 and 24 million. How, how, how do you, maybe it's 34 million, I don't know, but that's a huge span. I mean, how, how do you not know if it's this number or this number or somewhere in between? Yeah, so anyhow, well, I'm not trying to get into, not trying to get into an international conflict here. So, not trying to get in an international conflict here, okay? We'll talk about some of that a little bit more here as we go, maybe. So, yeah. Yeah, but I was I was looking at like plagues and things the the black plague still is top but When you yeah when you take into account the actual population though like brother holderman was saying the black plague in in terms of percentage of population It was the deadliest, worst, I mean, worst thing ever. Because the percentage of the population, what they say that half of Europe was taken out. And so, that's quite a big deal if one out of every three people, at least, you know, how many people we have in this room right now? The teens are gone, so we don't have very many. One, two, three. So there'd be at least five of us gone. We're not taking volunteers. Yes, sir. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. National and international conflict. That's a that's a big thing right now. Everybody's talking about it because there are wars. Going on and then there are rumors of wars, right? I mean, that's exactly what exactly what he said right in verse number six wars and rumors of wars and and then he goes on kingdoms rising against kingdoms and and so, you know Like we see that we see that happening Right now happening so Yeah I don't want to get into all of that yet. We'll talk about that later. All right. So as they as they say, vote early and vote often. No, I'm just kidding. Wait a minute. That's not right. Yeah. It's a problem. So number letter C, natural disasters, as verse seven says there, it says famines, pestilences and earthquakes. Have you read the news? I mean. I watched it. There you go. Letter D religious persecution. It's happening, it's happening. There are there are many countries in this world. Where you do not have freedom of religion. By the way, even in Israel right now, they may say you have freedom of religion. But in Israel, it's it's very much. If you even so officially, you're free. Officially, but unofficially, if you're caught proselytizing. You got a price on your head. What? Proselytizing. Proselytizing. And so, here's the funny thing about evangelizing versus proselytizing. Because most countries have some sort of rule in that. As a matter of fact, in America, chaplains in the military are 100% okay to evangelize, but they're not allowed to proselytize. So to proselytize is when someone has a religion already, and then you're trying to win them to yours. That's proselytizing. You're trying to make them a proselyte. which is what Jesus told us to do. So, anyhow. So, the way you deal with that is you don't ask them if they have a religion of their own. You just give them the gospel. Just give them the gospel, you know. So, there you go, and take it or leave it. What's that? No, no, there's a difference between soliciting and proselytizing also. Soliciting is selling. Proselytizing is trying to convince someone that their way is wrong. If they come to me and ask me questions, I am free and open, yes. So there's a fine line though, because you also wear an official government uniform, and so there is a difference between your representation as an ambassador for Christ, but you're also wearing a government uniform, and so you're also There's there's a fine line on that separation of church and state That you have to make sure that you're not because if I'm talking to say someone that's a lower rank than me And they decide to accept Christ because they think that it's going to give them favor because I'm a higher rank. Now there's undue influence. And they probably didn't really accept Christ. They probably just went through the motions because of the favor they thought they were going to get from it. And that's why it is important that you're careful to just evangelize and keep it simple and not try to get into all now. When you get the opportunity to preach, do you preach the truth? You preach the truth, absolutely. Absolutely preach the truth. typically they separate chapel services. So you have, usually you'll have, and you can separate them really detailed too. You can split them all the way, and you can say, you know what, I don't want anybody here, so it's Baptists only. And then, you know, I'm just kidding. But you can say, you know, we're having a Baptist chapel service, and then anybody that wants to come is welcome to come. They come to your service. You're preaching the word of God. So it's there. There's some stuff there. So anyhow But religious persecution now and and you know, you have to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves as Jesus said You know, we don't want to just be like political and try to walk on eggshells and try not to get into trouble and, you know, think about your career and all that. No, you don't want to. That's not the issue there. But at the same time, you don't want to be stupid and do dumb stuff and stick your foot in your mouth all the time because you're not being wise about how you approach reaching people. And I heard of a guy who said he would never advance past captain as a chaplain because he was having a conversation with a Catholic chaplain and convinced him of the truth of the gospel. The Catholic chaplain got saved and had to resign because he couldn't be a Catholic chaplain anymore because he's no longer Catholic. And so that's exciting. but he got in trouble because he proselytized. That's a real high profile thing, by the way, if a chaplain, because it actually financially harms the military because they need chaplains, diverse chaplains, so that you're able to have other, you know, you can provide the service for your faith group. You know, it is a matter of the free exercise of religion. That's why chaplains are in place. And so again, it's a fine line. If you win everybody, not saying you don't try to win everybody, but if you win everybody, there's no longer free exercise of religion because everybody's your religion. It'd be great to win everybody, though. But then the military would have to recruit other chaplains for the other, and then you win them, yeah. Anyways. It's a careful thing. But religious persecution, we're not talking about, we don't really, I know some people would disagree, but my personal experience in the military, and that may change over the next few years, I don't know, but my personal experience in the military, I'm not seeing religious persecution. I get lots of freedom as a chaplain. I've been asked a couple times if I would not pray in Jesus' name, and I said, well, would it be alright if you were to, well, I don't give them a scenario, but it's just like asking somebody to pray to someone else's God. I pray in Jesus' name because that's who I'm praying to. And that's why I always make it optional. I never say, let's pray. I say, pray with me if you will. And that way it's up to their will. If they want to, they can. If they don't want to, they don't have to. And if they're offended that I prayed in Jesus' name, that's their problem, because I'm praying to my God, who I represent, who I'm there for. But I have been asked that, and I've told them no. No, sorry. This is... Yep. Yeah. Yeah, so. And you know what? There was no pushback. No pushback. So I just said, well, this is. Yeah, there. Yeah, well, I mean the person that would have the issue, the person that approached me on it was the commander. So anyhow. Yeah, well, they do. They just he's like, well, you know, we have Muslim soldiers. I said, well, that's fine. If they want to pray to their God, they can pray to their God. That's why I tell them, pray with me if you will. Or pray on your own. I don't care. You asked me to pray. I'm going to pray to my God. I'm not praying to somebody else. What do you want me to do? You know, I mean, it doesn't make any sense, so. Religious persecution, though, and it's funny that we look at something like that as possible persecution. That's not persecution. Persecution is like, let's see, what's it say? Verse number nine. They shall deliver you up to be afflicted. And shall kill you. and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. Then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another." That's pretty strong stuff. That's not just rejecting the tract you're trying to offer them. That's not just saying, we don't want any, go away, you know, when you knock on their door. I mean, this is like, Attempting to take your life away over these things. That's real persecution. Real persecution is when you suffer physical injury over something. Now, sure, financial injury, things like that. Sure, those things can be an issue. And even like, you know, people giving you a hard time, but that's very, very, very light affliction. It's nothing compared to what they dealt with in the first century, and it's nothing compared to what some people are dealing with in other countries today, and it's nothing compared to what they're going to deal with during the Tribulation. Yep, we call that persecution. And that's about the extent it comes to. It's a financial thing, right? You know, it'd be different if you said, well, I mean, this is against my religion. And then they just come in and burn the place down with you in it. That's persecution. I mean, it's first world persecution is really weak. It's really weak. What else is going to happen? Letter E, abounding sin. Abounding sin. Verse number 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Wax means to become. to become like okay so y'all seen the moon before all right so the moon is currently a new moon i do believe if i my calculations are correct so new moon is where there's nothing you can't see there's no light on the moon so then the next um The next step is going to be a gibbous. A gibbous. No, no, no. It's going to be a crescent. But it is a waxing crescent. A waxing crescent means it is enlarging. then it will become a gibbous which is more than a crescent it's like the dark parts of crescent it's a gibbous and it is and once it gets from a waxing crescent to a waxing gibbous then it gets halfway then it is or well then it gets a full moon then it goes to a waning crescent, and then a, or no, waning gibbous, and then a waning crescent, and then new moon again. That's the cycle. So, to wax and to wane, right? Brother Holderman knows all about wane, right? Every time I think of waning gibbous, I think about Brother Holderman, right? That's his middle name, wane. So, what's that? Your middle name's wane. Wow! Any other wanes in here? Nice Andrew. Anyhow, to wax is to increase or to become. Like someone might begin to preach and they get all fired up and they wax eloquent. That doesn't mean that they're out there Waxing their car in a good way, right? They're waxing. It's not waxing and waning, right? Anyways Wax on wane off. Anyways, so what's that? Oh, and it's not the mop and glow on my head either. So No, so waxing and I don't wax my head neither does brother Joe, right or brother Wilhelm Pastor G waxed his head. No, I'm just kidding. Yes, sir I don't believe that it's connected. It's spelled the same, but I don't believe it's connected. So, it's one of those, what do they call that, where it's the same word, but then the context of how it's used is different, similarly. So, yeah. It doesn't mean the same thing. It's spelled the same, but it means two different things. So to wax cold is to become cold or to grow cold. So it grows cold. And somebody asked earlier, and I don't know if they can hear me now, but I heard, y'all, I listen to you guys while I'm preaching. I do. I hear what you say. I can see how you're looking at me. I pay attention. You guys, I probably pay attention almost as good as you guys do. Not to the sermon. To you guys. So somebody asked earlier what divers means. Divers. D-I-V-E-R-S. Divers. Divers in 1611 English means diverse. It's diverse. Various. Diverse. You know, it's all over the place, right? So, like for example, as it said in verse number 7, right? That there's going to be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in divers places. That's in diverse places. And maybe I just pronounce it wrong. Maybe the way it's written is intended in 1611 to pronounce it as diverse, even though it looks like diverse. Although diverse, diverse, you know. So, just like some of y'all might notice in your King James Bible, the word S-H-E-W. S-H-E-W, that's show. It's pronounced show, not shoe. Show. Yeah, S-H-E-W. It's pronounced show. Yeah. So maybe I'll stop pronouncing divers as divers and pronounce it as diverse. Diverse. Or something like that. Maybe, right? I don't know. Hey, it's just like vittles. Did y'all know the word vittles is in the Bible? Do you know how it's spelled? V-I-C-T. Etc. Yeah. Sorry, I'm illiterate. I can't spell now. It's like saying victuals. It's like saying victuals, but it's actually vittles. That's how they pronounce vittles. Or at least that's how they pronounce it in the South, and it sounds better in my opinion. So. All right. So. Abounding in sin. As we read there, verse number 12, the love of many will wax cold. Iniquity abounds, right? The iniquity... Iniquity abounds. And yep, there is... I mean, well, no, not necessarily. Yes and no, but no, actually, in this context. So some of the things that are mentioned here are very general. And they're not like, as he says, it's not time yet. He's like, you're going to see these things? Don't worry, it's not time yet. The end is not yet, right? Wars and rumors of wars, he lists, and then he says, He says, be not troubled. All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. So, you know, that's some of these things are going to be happening, maybe not full fulfillments, but as we've talked about before, you know, there are. multiple fulfillments and in a lot of prophecies. And so you'll have partial fulfillments of prophecies that will later become full fulfillments in Christ himself. Does that make sense? Or even like the Antichrist, there have been partial fulfillments that the that that other men have had, like, for example, the abomination that make it desolate. Right? The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. There was a man, B.C. Before Christ, there was a man named Antiochus Epiphanes. And his first name there, Antiochus, if you remember Antioch, Antioch was the name of many towns where he ruled. He was one of Alexander the Great's generals. When Alexander the Great died, he didn't pass on his kingdom to his children or anything like that. It wasn't like a king passing on. He just let it be and the generals took over the regions that they were in. There were four generals that took over. And so I can't ever remember all of them, but you can remember Antiochus because he had, well, and what's funny, well, not funny, but what's sad about it is you have Israel like right in the borderline of two and sometimes all four of those kingdoms. And so there would be fighting back and forth where sometimes they would be part of Antiochus, sometimes they'd be part of the Seleucid kingdom, you know, they would be part of the different kingdoms. And so at one point, Antiochus Epiphanes was The ruler there and he took a pig and slew it or he rode into the to the kingdom or to the kingdom to the temple and and he was gonna do what the the abomination of desolation was he was gonna try to fulfill the The Antichrist prophecy, but you know what? He wasn't the Antichrist he was an Antichrist, but he wasn't the Antichrist and A lot of people, a lot of people would agree that Hitler was an antichrist. He most certainly was an antichrist. And so anyhow, and I mean there, as Jesus said, or as, as, as Jesus said, many will come in my name. And by the way, as John said, in first John, there are many antichrists. There are many antichrists. Now, there's only one actual antichrist, but there are many who partially fulfill. The an aspect of being an antichrist, who is who is he who is antichrist, but he that denies that the father had sent the son, I'm paraphrasing that I said it wrong, I'm sure, but it's it's when you deny the father and the son. And so there are billions of antichrists in the world today. But the full fulfillment of antichrist will come during the tribulation. And there are lots of other things that he will fulfill. So the world is going to abound in sin. This is a prophecy that has been being fulfilled generation after generation. And I'm telling you, that we are living as though we are real close to the days of Noah. real close to the days of Noah. And a lot of nations in the world are living like the days of Lot in Sodom. And it's getting to the point where we're probably not a whole generation away from most nations being Sodom. Not a city, but a nation. a nation being I mean we're we're not far from I mean. Man America America Canada I mean both and and and some European nations there they're like real close a generation maybe two at the most from from being bad enough that God would be fully justified wiping them off the map. We're not far here in America, we're not far. And in June, in June every year, almost every city in the country, almost every major city in the country celebrates, celebrates what got two cities wiped off the map. Yeah, absolutely terrible. What else is going to happen? Letter F extensive. Gospel preaching. Extensive gospel preaching. Verse number 14 says in this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness. Unto all nations and then shall the end come. Now some people say, well, see until until we reach the whole world. The end of the world won't happen. So let's just hold off a little bit. No, no, no. No, no, no. It's that's not a condition on the incoming. And by the way, I believe the apostles fulfilled. Preaching the gospel to the whole world. And I I'm not saying the known world. I'm saying the whole world everywhere where there was a human being. The Apostles during their generation reached. Everywhere. And their scripture for that, by the way, and we're not going to go there right now, but their scripture for that that they've reached the whole world that they had the message that had been heard through all the Earth. So. We have a responsibility to do that in every generation. But yes, through the Internet, through through the technology and stuff, we're getting real close to where there's not a place on the planet that won't at least have the ability to have the gospel there. And so and that's that's happening. You know. Here he says the inference of this passage is that these things would accelerate toward the close of this age. Those 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 things would accelerate toward the close of the age. And you know, if you really consider, actually, You think about history, and I could do a whole message on this. I did a series of messages. It's called Baptist history. But. So. So. The. The proliferation of proliferation, that's to expand, right? The expansion, we'll just use that word, the expansion of missions in the last few, last two, three centuries has been, and when I say expansion of missions, I mean expansion of biblical missions. Now, are we losing missionaries? Missionaries are coming off the field. We don't and the the the ratios numbers of people of lots of missionaries versus, you know, versus lots of people to reach. I mean, we're we're We've got a long way to go, still. But part of that is keeping up with the inflation of population. And so, as population increases, we need to increase the amount of evangelists and missionaries that we're sending out to reach the population. And so as that happens, but I'm seeing this, wouldn't you agree that as you talk to other preachers and other people around the country and around the world, that there is a little bit of a push for missions in the last, maybe last couple generations really. But really longer than that. With Sandy Creek, that's 1600s, right? Yep. Absolutely, absolutely. And we need people to be reaching the world with the gospel. But as the days grow on, the urgency increases. And as the urgency increases, people do things like sell their house, move into a camper at their church building and start doing mission trips as a pastor. I'm referring specifically to Pastor Graham and his family. And, you know, people start seeing the urgency. Yeah, I was just pointing at him right here on the pulpit. People see the urgency and start making drastic changes in their lives, realizing that you don't have very long to reach the world and we've got to do everything we can to do it. Or going back into the military to reach people with the gospel. It's kind of a crazy thing to do. So many unknowns. Y'all pray for me. Anyways. We can summarize this age by the following. Moral decay. Many passages, by the way, for each of these. I'll just give you the references and you can look them up later. Moral decay, that's 2 Timothy 3, 1 through 5, and Jude, verses 17 through 19. Spiritual declension. He's just trying to, what do you call it? Yeah, no, he's trying to keep it all D words here. Natural disasters and gospel dissemination. So anyhow, spiritual declension, you've got 2 Timothy 4 verses 2 through 4, 1 Timothy 4 verses 1 and 2, 2 Peter 2 verses 1 through 3, and verses 17 through 22. This is a, it's really, really kind of goes along with the spiritual decay. I'm sorry, moral decay, spiritual declension. Things are getting bad, and the good is not as, it's not good anymore. And then natural disasters, Luke 21, 11, and gospel dissemination, as we saw there in verse number 14. It says, we are surely living in the last days. However, it is important to note that we are as much in the last days as were the early Christians. There is no prophecy that requires fulfillment during this present age before the rapture can occur. This great event is imminent. So we'll look at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ next Sunday night. Lord willing. Yes, sir. Probably. Yeah. So this study, so the, we're still live, right? Okay. So this study has five lectures, all right? You know, lectures can take months to get through, but five lectures. The first lecture is the course of this age. The second lecture is the seven judgments, so we get into the tribulation period. The third lecture is the two resurrections. The fourth lecture is the millennial kingdom of Christ, and the fifth lecture is the eternal state. And so, this one might take us five years, I don't know. You'll just have to fill us in when we get there. So, yeah, I've got Daniel chapter 9 written next to verse 15, and I don't have notes, just the ones I write. But yeah, we'll get into it. We'll talk about the second coming of the Lord Jesus and go on down through there. Nature of Christ's return. So we'll look at the fact of Christ's return, the assurance of Christ's return, the nature of Christ's return. Yep, then we're going to get into rapture versus revelation. We'll talk about the details of Christ's return. Yeah, this this lecture. It'll take a while. So be be here, be here, be here. Amen. And if if Brother Wilhelm beats us to it, then he'll have to tell us how it went from another perspective. Now we'll just come up there and see you. When we get there, we'll say, hey, how'd it all look from your side? And you're like, oh man, you would not believe it. When this happened, oh, you would not believe what the Iron Dome looks like from above. I guess they're satellites.