Well, we're gonna be talking about the second coming of Christ from the Olivet Discourse. What we've actually been talking about for about six, eight weeks now is we started talking about the next major event on God's prophetic calendar, which is the rapture. And we went through about four lessons on that. And then I went into the Olivet Discourse because so many, I'll just be, are we on the air by the way? Okay, good. All right. There are many teachers, prophecy teachers, pastors, seminaries out there that use the Olivet Discourse to try and prove the rapture, which it absolutely does not. So I transitioned into going through the Olivet Discourse to basically go through why it is not talking about the rapture, but it is talking about the events leading up to the Second Coming. And in fact, we're going to get to that point today. So we went through nine signs in the first part of Matthew chapter 24 that are all redundant with the signs that are given in Revelation regarding things that'll be taking place during the tribulation period. After those nine signs then, which ended with Matthew 24, 14, where there was one good sign during the tribulation period, the gospel will go to all people. The entire world will hear the gospel. They won't all come to Christ, of course, but the entire world will. We talked about missionaries that will come in and say, well, the rapture can happen until the world hears the gospel. That is totally false. It's not true. Same, I think that means the same thing. False, not true. The gospel will go out when the 144,000 young male Jewish virgin evangelists go out, Revelation chapter 7 and 14 and the two witnesses in Revelation 11. That's when the gospel will begin to go to everyone across the world. It may not necessarily happen in the church age time, which based on the amount of folks that have not had the gospel, it's very unlikely it will. But during the tribulation period, every single person on this earth will somehow hear the gospel, Matthew 24, 14. Then we go to what we did the last couple of weeks, Matthew chapter 24, starting at verse 15, talking about the abomination of desolation. Now, folks, the abomination of desolation absolutely, positively cannot happen during the church age. You're like, well, why not? Where does the abomination of desolation take place, literally? It takes place in the third temple. Is the third temple built? No. The Dome of the Rock, the Islamic mosque is still sitting there. So on its face, it's like you cannot start attempting to prove the rapture for something that doesn't exist yet. So again, why did Jesus give this in Matthew 24 and 25, the Olivet Discourse? Well, he was talking to the Jewish disciples. The church age had not even begun yet. It doesn't start until after the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. We see the beginning works of the church age in Acts. And therefore, everything in the Gospel of Matthew 24 is pointing at things that will be taking place during the seven-year tribulation period leading up to what we're going to get to today, which is literally the second coming of Christ. All right, so let's pray and get into it. Father, thank you for your love for us. Pray that you bless the lesson to come as we open up the prophetic scriptures. Father, help us to do what we always certainly strive to do, to exercise 2 Timothy 2.15, to study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen and workwomen, that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. So Father, we commit this to you in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're gonna start in Matthew 24, verse 21. We've gone through now the first three and a half years of the seven-year tribulation period. The abomination of desolation marks the midpoint of the seven-year tribulation period. Just to kind of review, if you weren't here the last couple of weeks, of course we didn't do that, we did, actually the last two weeks we did a session on Hanukkah, how it fits into what Antiochus Epiphanes did, talked about in Daniel chapter 11, and Hanukkah where Jesus was at the Feast of Dedication or the Feast of Lights in John 10, so we brought in how Hanukkah at least has a nexus to some of the things in scripture, even though it's not a, Feast mandated by scripture. All right, so before that, we ended up with, again, we stopped with the abomination of desolation. How do we know when that has to happen? Again, Daniel 9.27 makes it very clear. When the Antichrist comes on the scene, which he, of course, has not yet, when the Antichrist comes on the scene, he will confirm a what with the Jewish people? A peace treaty, or basically the verbiage is to confirm a covenant. So the Antichrist will come on, he'll confirm that peace treaty with the Jewish people. Well, what do the Jewish people want in Jerusalem? Well, they want that third temple up. Now the concept is how do you get rid of the Dome of the Rock and how do you get the third temple built? There's been a ton of different videos and Bible teachers that say, well, they'll build the temple next to the Dome of the Rock. No, they won't. Or it's gonna be built in the City of David, not on the Temple Mount. Well, archaeologically and biblically, there's only one place the temple can be built. It's at the top of Mount Moriah, which is exactly where the Dome of the Rock sits right now. You say, well, how's that Dome of the Rock going to go away? Well, if we go to Ezekiel 38 and 39, the Gog-Magog battle, what group of people rise up against the Jewish people? Well, it's the Muslims. The Muslims come up, they attack Israel, God then destroys those people, the groups, the Muslim nations that attack Israel. Now, I'm gonna caveat for just a minute because I don't know, and I said, I think I talked about it a week or so ago, what's happening in Syria right now. When you look at the prophetic scenario and what's taking place around the countries that are around Israel, I'm, Don't know that this is true, but I'm just going to call it a theory for today, even though it may have some validity. So what has Israel been doing for the last year or two? They have been kicking the living fire out of Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis are getting it now, Iran has got its tail between its legs. Jordan is scared, other nations are scared. All of a sudden, Israel's been taking a very, very dominant position. Now wait a minute, for Ezekiel 38 to come to pass, it talks about Israel being a city of what? Unwalled villages. Now wait a second. Israel right now, they're on constant alert. In fact, two missiles came in towards Jerusalem in the last week. So they're definitely not in a state of peace right now. They're definitely not in unwalled villages. But, and this is a but, and again, I'm speculating here. Israel has to get a place for the biblical scenario to come to pass. When is Israel going to be in the position where they are in unwalled villages, or basically the military is on a stand down state that they're so strong, they're so scary that nobody's gonna mess with them. We're not there yet. So I'm speculating, and I've used that word multiple times on purpose, that if Israel keeps on the track that they're going, the whole Muslim world is scared to death. They don't wanna come up against them. It's a losing battle right now. Maybe Trump, President Trump, is gonna have something to do with helping peace to come to the Middle East. Don't know. But it's just interesting, that's the word we're going to use, that there is this massive dominance of Israel right now and everybody else is kind of, even though they're lobbing some missiles and rockets, they're in a world of hurt. The terrorist groups are literally being decimated right now. So is this the beginning stages for Israel to be in a state where they literally, they're the dominant strong figure and everybody else is scared of them, And then what does Ezekiel 38 tell us? All of a sudden, Israel stands down, just kind of like the October 7th thing happened. They were in a kind of a state of rest. They weren't on high alert. The terrorists, the Hamas comes in and literally kills 1,000 plus people, decimates, we've been in war, they've been in war, and America's been part of it to a small degree, at least, for the last 14 months. The only other time in history where Israel's been at that peace, if you will, with when America's been around was 1973, the Yom Kippur War. So it was 50 years to the date when October 7th kicked in. And I mean, they are on high alert right now. But are they gonna get to that point where with the, I mean, how many, and this is just mind boggling, how many Israel, IAF, Israel Air Force jets have been shot down in the last 14 months? Goose egg. Goose egg. I mean, with anti-ballistics, Russia just accidentally shot down a plane from Azerbaijan. It was an accident. And Putin admitted it happened. I mean, the jets from Israel are flying in and out doing thousands of missions, and they come in unscathed. How does that happen? Well, you got to say, wow, the Lord has really protected them, and he's got to be, how they haven't been hit. By the way, how many American planes have been shot down in the Middle East? It's sad. I mean, we've been actually shooting our own planes down. They almost shot another one down a couple of days ago. So, I mean, we can't even get our own planes up without shooting them down ourselves, which is really a horrible thing. But God has been protecting the Jewish people, and it just goes to show that. So, again, that's a little bit of speculation. We'll see how this plays out. All right, so the abomination of desolation, where the Antichrist will have an image made to himself, will be put into the temple. Revelation 13, the beast, the false prophet, says, Everybody's going to have to worship the image of the beast. Revelation 13. In Revelation 13, 15 says if you do not worship the beast, what happens to you? You die. You'll be killed. We've talked about this with facial recognition software, with artificial intelligence being rapidly built. China has one camera for every two people, meaning that you cannot go through China without being tracked, watched, your gate watched, your face watched, your habits watched, your social currency watched. The Chinese people are starting to rebel against it, but is China going to back down? Probably not. America is on that same track. You say, wait a minute, America? We talked about it on Wednesday nights. Facial recognition software is now used in about seven or eight major stadiums in the United States. In other words, you go in, you get your picture taken on your face, all of a sudden your face becomes your digital ticket. We're going to get to that place someday where tickets and cell phones and credit cards are no longer going to be needed. It'll simply be facial recognition or other metrics that can be used through the digital systems. And I'm not talking, folks, I'm not, this is not science fiction anymore. I'm not saying things that aren't literally happening. This is happening today. Multiple places are using facial recognition software in our country today. Of course, the word is it's all for good use, and it's all for your enjoyment and your recreation and getting you through things quick. But where do you think all that stuff is going? Well, one day the Bible tells us, Revelation 13, 15, and let's just turn to that one verse before we get back into the Olivet, because I want you to see it. I've spoken multiple times. I've spoken at two national conferences on this issue. And I'm really, I'm pushing it hard and furious because this is happening and it's no joke. And I've got the documentation to prove it. Revelation 13, if I can find 15 here. He's speaking of, okay, we're talking about the false prophet who's going to make this image of the Antichrist. He, or the false prophet, verse 15, was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast. Now we have an image. What does breath mean in the Bible? It means life. How do you give an inanimate object life? Well, we're talking about AI, transhumanism, and so forth, that the image of the beast should do what? It should speak. Okay, that's, I mean, you've seen holograms, you've seen AI, you've seen, and folks, I'm telling you, there's multiple things on the internet right now. One of a famous basketball player happens to be, there's multiple different images of this, and I'll just say his name because I don't know if it's AI or not, LeBron James right now. There are a massive amount of very weird pictures coming out with him, at least his face on it, don't know if it's true or AI. Mulberry's down the block had an AI thing put out about six months ago that was not generated by the boss, and it was talking about President Trump was coming to Mulberry. It's not true. The owner didn't put it out, but AI generated it through some other person, and this is how things are getting out. So again, I'm not throwing out science fiction stuff, folks. It's happening today. So what is this image going to do? It's going to speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. Now, how do you go on a worldwide basis with eight billion people? How do you track them and how do you know if they're worshipping the image or not? Well, if you do like China has done and America is starting to do and countries around the world are beginning to do and you have facial recognition software, folks, you cannot hide. You can not hide. It's coming. So you're like, well, that scares me. That makes me nervous. Nothing to be scared about or nervous today. Again, when this is in full force, we're at the midpoint of the tribulation period when Revelation 13, 15 takes place. So if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you will not see the beast's image because you'll be up in heaven. And that's a good thing. So there's a reason for God's people not to get scared or concerned about these things, even though the stage is being set for these things to be implemented, as I pointed out, in stadiums and other places, and government is using some of these things. We institute, I told you this before, when I was running the jails some time ago, we instituted putting iris scans in to make sure that the right inmates were coming in and out of the system, and you can't, outside of poking your eyeball out, there's no way to change your iris. So this technology has been used in government for many years, it's going to continue to be used, and it's going to expand. All right, getting away from my hobby horse. After three and a half years, the Bible says, for then shall be, after that three and a half years, after the abomination of desolation, when the Antichrist defiles the temple with the image we just spoke about, will be what? Great, great tribulation. The worst time of all is yet to come on this earth, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be. So God's saying, listen, you know about the Genesis flood, how God wiped out all but eight people. And the tribulation he's talking about, God says is worse, it's scary, it's more devastating than what took place during the flood. And you say, well, how can that be? It killed everybody. Well, that was a very short lived thing. You swallow water, it's over. This thing is going to be torture and people in prison and going through famine and pestilence and horrible horrible times and God is saying the worst times on this earth are yet to come because people will suffer they will be tortured based on what the Antichrist system will do. All right now we're going to talk a little bit about the Great Tribulation Deception and then we'll get into the literal second coming of Christ. Now we're not gonna go through all this. This would be a multiple week class in itself. But there are three main sets of judgments that are talked about in Revelation. There's actually four, but one is left to our imagination. So we start out in Revelation six, we have the six seal judgments. And then the seventh judgment actually incorporates the next sets of judgments, including the trumpets, the bowls or vials based on what translation you use. All right, so we have the six, the seven seal judgments, the seven trumpet judgments, and the seven bowler vial judgments. The one I left off are from Revelation chapter 10, the seven thunder judgments, where God says they're coming, but he doesn't reveal what they are. But those will be happening as well. So 28 major judgments that will be taking place during the seven year tribulation time, which will wipe out all but a small number of the eight billion people on this earth. That is why it is great tribulation. Horrible, horrible times are yet to come. All right, Matthew 24, 22, the Bible says, except those days during the tribulation should be shortened, there should be no flesh saved, or should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days will be shortened. In other words, it'll be confined to that last three and a half year period. Some have speculated, well, maybe it'll be 22 hour days instead of 24. Contextually, it appears that the days being shortened are kept to that three and a half years, but the other interpretation is out there as well. The bottom line, the point to get here is not, is it going to be 24-hour days? The point to get here is that the Bible says everybody's going to get wiped out if those days weren't shortened. Again, we know from two judgments, one seal and one trumpet judgment, that 50% of the world's population will be taken out. Matthew 24, verse 22, which is on the screen here. We know 50% of the world's population is going away. This intimates that virtually all but a handful of people could be killed during that tribulation time. So we don't know the number, but it should put the fear of God into folks. And again, does this apply to you as the church of God? Please say no. Otherwise, you've been listening to the wrong preachers. Shame, shame, shame. No. It's out there, though. But except God made it clear that these things will come and it will be catastrophic. All right. Verse 23, then, if any man hears the signs that God says will be taking place right before he comes by or back. If you look on your let's just go back to the chart again. If you wanna know exactly the things that are gonna be taking place right before Christ comes, you go to Revelation 16 and you read about the bowl or vial judgments, vial again being the King James version of a bowl-type container. When those seven bowls are poured out on the earth, those are the literal signs that will be taking place minutes before Jesus Christ comes back. All right, then if any man, these are additional things that'll be taking place. during the end of the tribulation period. If any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, believe it not. In other words, Jesus isn't there yet. The antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan himself, there'll be many fake Christs that'll be coming out at the end of the period, and God is saying, listen, if it's not me personally, it's a false Christ. For there shall arise false Christs, false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. All right, again, when you read through the things that the Antichrist and the false prophet and Satan will be doing, the miraculous things that God will allow them to do during that time, people are sucked in by signs. If they see something miraculous happening and it's like, wow, that must be God, well, maybe it's not God. Satan is powerful and God's given him a lot of latitude and he's going to give him a tremendous amount of latitude during the tribulation. Why is God doing this again? Why is he allowing this horrible times to take place? Why is he allowing the great deception to take place? Because Jesus Christ is getting ready to come back to this earth at this time. He doesn't want false prophets, false believers, false professions Filling this world. He only wants individuals that have literally placed their faith in him and their trust in him And everyone else God is going to judge. He doesn't want him in his kingdom just to be point-blank verse 25. He said behold I Told you before this has been in the scriptures God saying listen when you see this nonsense taking place when you see false signs popping up These are things I've been warning you about you go through the entire Gospels and there's constant warning about the false apostles, false prophets, Pharisees, Sadducees, elders, scribes, religious leaders that are giving out a ton of fake information. Verse 26, wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth, behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not. In other words, tremendous deception will be taking place. All right, I wanna move forward though to get to the second coming. Starting at verse 27, we now get away from the specific signs, if you will, that are targeting what will be happening in those seven years. And now we're going to go to the specific signs that will be taking place the day that Christ comes back. So now he's going to give us some hints, and then he's going to spell it out point blank. Matthew 24, 27, for as the lightning comes out of the east and shines even under the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. What is he saying? He's like, you can understand nature, you can understand how lightning works, and he's saying, listen, as sure as the, if you will, these types of things, astronomy, geology, weather patterns, you know these things, you've learned these things, He said, now what I'm telling you, when you see the things I just talked about, it's just like understanding where lightning comes from. I'm telling you, I'm coming back when these things happen. It's a guaranteed end. No mistake, what is transpiring. Obvious, this is speaking about the second coming of Christ, which will become more clear as we go through a few more verses. Clear is the pattern of lightning. Zechariah 9.14, and the Lord shall be seen over them. and his arrows shall go forth as the lightning, and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the south. And again, Zechariah's prophesying about the second coming of Christ and some of those symbolic concepts were brought out in that verse. All right, verse 28, Matthew. For wherever the carcass is, now here's another illustration, wherever the carcass is, in other words, if there's a dead animal, there will the, And this is a bad translation, folks, and I don't mean to upset folks with words that are better translated a different way, but this is one of them. For wherever the carcass is, there will be eagles be gathered together. Eagles are not vultures. The same word in the Greek language can be translated as vulture or eagle. And I believe the translators probably would have been better off using the word vulture. I put a little illustration down here. We were preaching down in Plymouth, Illinois, and all of a sudden in Plymouth, I see literally vultures that are flying up in the air. So we had a couple of minutes. I'm like, let's drive down the road and see what the vultures are doing. Again, you know, I don't get out much. So I'm driving down the road, and sure enough, there on the side of the road was a dog that had gotten killed, and the vultures literally were down there eating it. That's not something eagles tend to do, but vultures do. So the bottom line is, he's saying, listen, when the birds that like to eat dead flesh are flying over a carcass, I saw the birds up there. I knew there had to be something dead down there. And sure enough, we drove down and there it was. And that's what God's saying. He's like, just as sure as when you see vultures flying around, there's going to be something dead down there. Now I will, I'll give the eagle one benefit here. So we don't live out in the country. We live in a suburb called Franklin, about half an hour north of here. And my neighbor, sends my wife a picture, and it's of this big, giant, bald eagle. And he said he was concerned because we have a dog that's about that big, and he's like, that eagle was sitting up in the tree, and he says, I think it was waiting for your silly dog to come out. Well, the dog didn't come out, and unfortunately, but the eagle was sitting up a tree so that thing sat there for a couple hours and then it flew down and I mean massive eagle and fortunately got tired of waiting and bellow apparently was tired that day and didn't come out and He went home hungry, but will eagles scoop down and pick up an animal Yeah, but they tend not to be ones that'll sit there and pick away at a dead dog or something like that like vultures will Take it either way good to go. All right What else is gonna happen? All right, he says, immediately after the tribulation, I just told you, I gave you two illustrations. When you see these signs, boy, you better be ready because I'm coming back. And again, does not apply to the church age saints, because you won't be here. It will apply to the folks that missed the rapture. In other words, those that don't trust Christ, they'll be left behind. The folks, the Jewish folks that'll get saved at the beginning of the tribulation, they will be here. they will all be able to take this literally because it will apply to them literally. So immediately after the tribulation of those days, in other words, after the total time of the seven-year tribulation, including the great tribulation is done, what's gonna take place? Well, those that are left behind will have to deal with this verse, 1 Corinthians 10, 13. There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Folks, it's the same temptation me and you deal with on different levels, but God is basically saying, listen, in the future, those that are left behind, those that will have to make a decision either to come to Christ or to, if you will, bow to the antichrist and take his image literally and take the mark of the beast, don't fall for it. Don't get caught up. Don't be involved in taking the temptation. The Bible is explicitly clear that anyone during the tribulation that takes the mark of the beast, what happens to them? They're held out of the kingdom. They're not being allowed in. It specifically states that. There's some that have tried to argue against that and say, well, you know, God's gracious. No, the Bible is very specific. You decide to worship the beast and take his mark, heaven will not be your home. So your friends and relatives that may be left if the rapture happens in our day and generation, Folks, it's better to martyr, and this sounds horrible, it's better to have your head chopped off during the tribulation than to spend eternity in hell. I mean, it's horrible, and nobody wants to go through that death process, but folks, one minute of horrible suffering is much, much better to endure than a lifetime of torture in a place called the Lake of Fire or hell. By the way, is hell still an acceptable word at Union Grove Baptist Church? Is there a hell? I mean, we don't talk about it often. I prefer to use the term the lake of fire, but sometimes maybe we'll have a bigger crowd here and we got a lot of visitors and they don't know what the lake of fire is. And I'll use the term hell. Well, folks, it's for a reason. It's because they understand what hell is. And they need to understand that without Christ, that's exactly where they're going to go. Never wanna be unkind, never wanna speak the truth without love, but sometimes we gotta be point blank and put it on the table, make sure people understand it. All right, so we have the context of the second coming, which we gave, now the cosmic sign of the second coming. Here's what's going to happen when Jesus literally is on his horse, coming down, headed towards the earth. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, in other words, the seven year tribulation period, Here's the signs that will be taking place. The sun will be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. All right, now this is happening. Jesus is getting ready. Revelation 19, which we may have time to quickly look at it. So Jesus is up in heaven with his saints. Bible tells us that we all mount up on white horses. Jesus is mounted up. And I mean, it's a different scenario, horses in heaven coming down on heaven, on horses down to, if you will, fight the ungodly that are left, but that's the scenario, Revelation 19. So everything's being set up and okay, he's coming. This is it. This is quote unquote, the, not a, the day of the Lord. Now the day of the Lord can of course apply to the seven year tribulation or parts of it, but there's also a specific context where the, Day of the Lord means the 24-hour day when Jesus is coming back. So here we are, we're at the Day of the Lord, that 24-hour period, if you will, when Jesus literally is going to come back to this earth to set up his kingdom. And these are the signs that will mark it. In other words, it's going to, for those that are living here, it's going to look like a total eclipse on steroids. The entire world is going to go dark. Suns darken, moons darken, stars are darken, fallen from heaven, powers of the heavens will be shaken. I don't know what that means, if it means tremendous thunder, what in the world God's gonna do, but I mean, this whole world is just gonna shake when Jesus is getting ready to come back to the earth. All right, Matthew 24, 30, and then, all right, the sun's dark, the moon's dark, and the stars are falling. It's a horrible, scary, scary, I mean, I know none of us would feel this, but it's a dark thunderstorm. This the rain is pounding and the wind is just gusting horribly and your house Begins to fill the thunderclaps and you're saying oh, this is a lot of fun. I like this now some of you might do that What are the kids doing? They're crawling under the bed screaming for mommy and daddy because it's scary. The dogs are barking. They're hiding They're trying to get under the covers Maybe you are too. And it's scary, and there's this unbelievable catastrophic event seemingly taking place. It's dark. The whole universe somehow is shaking, and Jesus is coming in the air, coming down towards the earth, and all this is taking place. 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." Now, folks, right now the world is on edge about drones and UFOs and things like that. And I mean, it's scaring the fire out of folks in New Jersey when you think about the drones and the things that are occurring and, oh, we're in danger and we could die and the country could All right, that's scary enough, and admittedly so. But how about the entire universe is shaking, and all of a sudden, out of the heavens, Christ comes appearing. Folks, it's like, well, we know about it. It shouldn't be that big a deal. Think again. They shall see the come of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. What do they do? The tribes of the earth mourn. Here he comes. And wow, I mean, this is something that's never ever happened in history. Catastrophic event. Here comes Jesus, Zechariah chapter 12. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. The Jewish people are longing for Christ to come, but the unsaved, those that have no idea what's taking place, unbelievable fear, and rightly so. Matthew 24, 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. All right, so Jesus is coming. This is where we actually would get into Matthew chapter 25, the sheep and the goats, the parable about the virgins, the 10 virgins with the oil. What's happening? At the end of the seven-year tribulation, now again, think, think, think, how many people are left on the earth when Jesus is coming back at the end of the seven-year tribulation period? A fraction of what was there seven years earlier, right? Most, they've gone through devastation, they've gone through famine, they've gone through pestilence, they've gone through unbelievable amount of death. They've watched relatives, friends die. They probably have no energy. There's nothing that's working. The economy is shot to pieces. The Antichrist has his one world government, one world religion, and one world economy running everything. The world is in absolute turmoil at this point. And here comes Christ. And what does he do? There will be believers. somehow that survived the tribulation period scattered throughout the world. Can you go underground? Well, apparently you must be able to do it somehow. Stay away from the Antichrist marking stations, go underground, have food supply, something for those that are alive, somehow they're gonna survive. We know that one third of the Jewish people from Zechariah 13, eight and nine, one third of the Jewish people will be protected. How many others across the world? We do not know. But God said, listen, get the angels out there, gather up all those who haven't joined the Antichrist in his band and bring them, if you will, they'll all be brought to Jerusalem where they'll have the judgment of the sheep and goats spoken about in Matthew chapter 25. Jesus made it clear, the gospel of the kingdom, which we talked about in Matthew 24, 14, will be preached to every nation before he returns to the earth. Evangelism of the world. which is one of the key goals in the New Testament. When you talk about the great commission, Matthew 28, 19 to 20, the great commission will come to fruition during the tribulation period when all people will indeed hear the gospel. All right, last thing and we're done for today. So now God gives a parable about his second coming. Now learn a parable of the fig tree. When its branches is yet tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when you shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. So what's God saying? He's like, okay, we talked about the lightning comes from the east, goes to the west. I talked about a dead carcass. What happens when you have a dead carcass? The vultures come. He said, that's as solid of an illustration as I can give that when you see the signs of the Son of Man coming in heaven, I'm coming, I'm coming. It's no joke. Why? It literally is going to take place. So when you look at the fig tree, which we're showing up on the screen, and you see that it's tender and it's putting forth leaves, what's coming? Well, summer's coming. The figs are coming. He said, as you know in Israel what a fig tree does, you know exactly how it blooms. You know exactly when the fruit comes. When you see the signs that I've talked about, here's what I want you to know. I'm coming. And that's a guarantee. The last two verses. The very last saying to you. Now here's a tricky little statement. He's talking to the Jewish disciples and he makes this statement, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. So some young theologian said, wow, he was speaking to the generation that existed in the first century, the first century disciples, and he just said that this generation won't disappear until all these things are fulfilled. It's 2,000 years later and these things aren't fulfilled. God must have messed up. No, God didn't mess up. What he's saying, if you take it contextually, he's talking about when all the signs that are spoken about that were given in Matthew chapter 24 take place, when you, when that generation, when you see these things happen, I'm guarantee ya, it's gonna come to pass. So properly, I mean, it just makes literally no sense any other way, unless you want to deny scripture. When he was talking about the generation, he's talking about the generation that would see the things he had just spoken about, which is yet to come. Whatever people are alive at that time, whatever people are living during the tribulation, that generation will indeed see heaven and earth shall pass away, but God's words will not pass away. They will see everything that he spoke about Throughout the scriptures of his second coming will indeed come to 100% fulfillment Just like we spoke about in the Bible this morning 320 plus prophecies that came to pass at the first advent of Christ Let me see. There's about 500 more to go Guess what folks by the time we get to the end of Revelation chapter 22 all 1,000 prophecies will be 100% fulfilled I asked those watching maybe in the auditorium today to Folks, this is irrefutable evidence. Irrefutable. And it's happening, and it's going to happen, and the things we see happening around the world right now, and especially in the Middle East, should ring our doorbell. Isn't it amazing that what God has said would be setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled is happening right now? It's amazing! And it's going to come to pass exactly as He stated. If you've never put your faith in Jesus, You've never understood that because you're a sinner, you don't deserve to go to heaven and that Jesus Christ came down from heaven to die on the cross for your sins, was buried in three days, rose from the dead. If you've never put your faith in him, there's no better time to do it than this very moment. Father, thank you for your love for us. Thank you for the word of God, which is very explicit, very clear, very accurate. And Father, I pray that as we remember the things that have happened in the past, as we see things developing in the present, and as we see the Scriptures proclaiming what will be happening in potentially the near future, I pray that you'd help us all to walk out of here renewed of our love for you, our renewal of understanding your Word is 100% true and accurate. And then, Father, help us to respond. Help us to go out this week. Help us to tell others the greatest news ever given to mankind, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. and all God's people said. All right, just a reminder, there is no evening service tonight and no Wednesday because the New Year time next week, everything will resume. Have a great week. Happy New Year, everybody.