Hello and welcome to our third broadcast in Matthew chapter 24. Stay tuned, and if you possibly can, have your Bible ready. Well, in our last broadcast, we have seen that Jesus left the temple for the last time, and His disciples came unto Him and asked Him what was happening here. And it says in verse 3, as 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." Now we saw in our last programs that Jesus said, first of all, look out for the deception. Verse number four, many will be deceiving many. Verse number five, he said it again. Verse number 24, he said it again. And so the first thing on the list here that Jesus said they need to be careful of, take heed, he said, is they shall deceive. It says in verse number 24. Who are they? Well, the spiritual leaders of today is who he's talking about here. Well, then he says you're going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. What is a rumor? Well, it is circulating a report, rumors. Look at CNN and see if we're getting any reports. He said, you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. In fact, this word is translated reports in John chapter 12 and verse 38 and Romans 10. Verse number 16. Well, we're hearing a lot of reports about rumors. We're hearing a lot of reports about wars and then he said nations shall rise up against nations and Kingdom against Kingdom now the Greek word for nation here is is Ethnoth, and it has been translated Gentiles 93 times. In other words, he said Gentiles are going to be fighting against Gentiles. Now, look at that from a Jewish perspective. There's three groups of people in the world here as God sees them. He said that there is Jews, and that anyone who is not a Jew is a Gentile. And the third group, of course, is Christians. It says in 1 Corinthians 12, 13, So both Jews and Gentiles make up Christians. Now, we see that Gentiles, he says, are going to be fighting against Gentiles. What shall be the sign of that coming? Well, you look at that, again, from a Jewish perspective, and you look in Syria, in Iraq, in Iran, in Lebanon, in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, in Yemen, in Bahrain, and in Jordan, and the Kurds, everybody over there, Gentiles fighting against Gentiles, exactly as the Bible said it would be. Then in verse number 7, it says, there shall be famines. I was looking at the internet on global famines the other day, and a site called Plan Canada, they say over 800 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat today. one in four children are underdeveloped due to malnutrition in the world. Nearly half of the deaths of children under five years of age are caused by the fact that they have poor nutrition. In the United States, in the hunger statistics, they say that 17.2 million households are food insecure. There are 16 million children who struggle with hunger. 49 million Americans live in food-insecure households. In other words, the handwriting's on the wall here. Not only is it going to be over in these third-world countries, the Salvation Army of Canada says on their site that one in seven Canadian children go to school hungry. Hunger hurts 300,000 Canadians, they say. and over 850,000 Canadians access food banks every month. Again, we can see the handwritings on the wall. The daily food bank that has to do with the internet, the Daily Bread Canada, they say that 1,123,500 visits to food banks in the GTA, the Greater Toronto Area, That's a lot of people visiting food banks in the Toronto area. Well, it goes on to say, not only are we going to be having a problem with hunger, we're going to be having a problem with famine and pestilences and earthquakes, and I'll tell you, these things are going to upset the day of the average Canadian. Well, the Bible says in verse 8, these are the beginnings These are the beginnings. Now we compare that with verse 6 where he says the end is not yet. Well in verse 9 it says, Now you have this word then. Then puts it into the time frame. Now, in every verse of the Bible, you have an interpretation, and you have applications. And the interpretation of this portion of Scripture is very Jewish, and it has to do with the tribulation period. But in making an application, it has something to do with all of us who are Christians today. And in verse number 10, it says, and many shall be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. What an interesting verse. Many shall be offended. There's seven verses in Matthew that talk about that. Then it says they will betray one another and they will hate one another. Now those seven verses that says they'll be offended, I'll just give them to you. You can study it for yourself. Matthew 11 and 6, Matthew 13, 21, 13, 57, 15 and 12, Matthew 24 and 10, 26 and 31, and 26 and 33 all talk about people being offended. Now Jesus said in Matthew 11 and 6, blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. And then he said in Matthew 24, verse number 10, many shall be offended. I don't think the average Christian is offended today as far as standing up for Jesus Christ. The Bible says, if you're ashamed of me, I'm going to be ashamed of you. Well, in Matthew 26, surprisingly here in verse 31, Jesus said at that last supper, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. No, we're not looking at the average Christian. We're looking at the remnant. We're looking at those who are really interested in serving Jesus Christ. Keep in mind that Judas Iscariot has already left. He's already left this, what was called the last Passover. Judas was there, but halfway through that Passover, It turned into the first communion service, if you study it carefully. And Judas is already gone. He was not there for that. So he has the eleven. They're very serious about serving the Lord. And even them, Jesus said, all ye shall be offended because of me this night. Well, the remnant needs to be careful. We need to be sure that we're not going to be offended because of the Lord." You say, well, I never will be offended. Yeah, that's what Peter said, too, and he was cursing and swearing and said he never knew him within a few hours. Well, not only does it say you'll be offended, but it says there'll be a betrayal. What is a betrayal? They will betray one another. That means to be disloyal to one another, to be disloyal. Loyalty. What a tremendous and important thing it is to be loyal to one another as Christians today. Many shall be offended because of the cause of Christ. Many will be betraying one another. Those that are loyal to Christ will be betrayed by those who do not have the courage to be loyal to Christ. And then he said they would hate one another, hate one another. There's 50 verses in the Bible that have the phrase, one another, interesting, should study them. Hate, what is that? It is an intense, passionate dislike. Luke chapter 6 in verse 22 says men shall hate you. Why are they going to hate you? It says they will separate you from their company. Why are they going to do that? It says they shall reproach you. Why would they do that? It says they will cast out your name as evil. Why will they do that? It goes on to say in verse 22, for the son of man's sake, We will be offended because of Christ. Now, if you're going to stand up for the truth, if you're going to be standing as the remnant should stand today, and you're going to just preach what we all used to preach back in 1945, you are going to be separated from their company. You're going to be held to reproach. Your name is going to be cast out, even as evil, because you're just doing what they don't have the courage to do anymore. Well, how does this happen? Well, it happens, verse 11, it says, "...and many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many." It happens because of the deception of false prophets or false leaders in the spiritual arena. And what are they doing? They are influencing people. Leaders influence what they do. To influence is to have the capacity to have an effect on character, that's what we are, and on behavior, that's what we do. So we read down in here in verse number 12, as a result of this influence, iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold. Iniquity. Now, that has been translated in 1 John 3, verse number 4, as the transgression of the law. And it says there that sin is the transgression of the law. So it says, Iniquity shall abound, or the transgression of the law shall abound. To abound is to exist in large numbers. And so, as we get to the end of the age, there's going to be a large number that are just going to turn away from God. We call it apostasy. There will be a remnant, but as a remnant, we need to be very careful that we're not offended in Christ. Well, it says in verse 12, the love of many shall wax cold. So once again, they have been influenced by the deceivers who have infiltrated into our ranks. And as a result of their influence, the love of many shall wax cold. The result of that is the apostasy that we're living in today. Well, then you have the little word, but, in verse number 13. What is that word? It is a conjunction used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned. But, it says, he that shall endure unto the end shall be saved. Endure unto the end. Now, some people take that and say you've got to endure unto the end in order to get to heaven. Nothing to do with going to heaven. He that endure unto the end shall be saved from the apostasy that is coming in in the last days. To endure is to remain in existence. To the end, well, it's used of Jesus when it says in the Bible that he loved them unto the end. That means he loved them unto the utmost. The utmost is to do the most that one is able to do. And so if we're going to stand true to the Lord in this age in which we're living, We need to face the facts, and we need to face the future. The fact is that many will be offended, many will be betraying one another, many will be hating one another because they will separate those who stand true to the Word of God. How does it happen? Because of the influence of false leaders in the spiritual arena. But it says, he that endures, he that remains in existence, he that stands true to the Word of God to the utmost, to the most that he is able to do that, he will be saved from the apostasy of the day in which we are living. Well, be sure to be with us for our next broadcast as we continue in this series in Matthew 24.