All right, good to be back. I'll be back here this morning. I'll be in Matthew 24 again. Slacking. There we go. Oh, thank you, sir. All right, should be good. All right, Matthew chapter 24. A couple weeks ago when we left off, I think we ended at verse 10. So we're going to read verse 10 just for some context. We'll read verse 10 and 11, open up in prayer, and then get into this. So Matthew 24 in verse 10 says, and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. We'll go ahead into verse 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you again just for this time. Lord, I ask that you'd be with me. Lord, just give me the right words to say. Lord, I ask that you'd open up the hearts of the people here and myself included, Lord, and teach us something from your word this morning. Father, we love you and we're thankful for the opportunity. Pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. to the millennium with the king coming back. Some of it is very much just the tribulation period, the hard times, the struggles, and the turmoil and travail that the world will be in and that the Jews will be going through. And that's kind of where we're at here. The first several verses of it, leading up to verse 10, is talking about the disciples there ask Jesus, what are going to be the signs of this end that you keep talking about? The end that shall come, the signs of your coming, what are we expecting to see? And so that's what sends Jesus Christ on this discourse to talk through all this stuff. You've got nation shall rise against nation. We compared a lot of those things pestilences famines to we compare that to Revelation where you've got the the four horsemen of the apocalypse is what they're Commonly known as in the world today, but those things will kick off key events Throughout the tribulation period and they're tied directly to the prophecy here. It's really what it is that Jesus Christ is laying out and So when we pick up in verse 10, I don't think I mentioned this last time, but verse 10 talks about says, then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. Many false prophets shall rise. They're going to deceive many. Verse 12 says the love of many shall wax cold. We can look at it now in 2024 and see very clearly this is not going to be a difficult task. This is not going to be a difficult thing to get the world just completely upended. Now take Christians out of the picture, the ones that actually have something to base their moral standards on, take us out of the picture and you just got free course and free reign for wickedness and the devil. and deception, and that's what we're going to hit on first thing this morning, is this deception from those false prophets. And it's going to run rampant and there's going to be nothing that stops it. There's going to be nothing at all that can hold that thing back. It's going to be so bad that people are going to be deceived into things like taking the mark. I was talking to my wife. One of the classes I'm taking throughout the week is on manuscript evidence. We're watching this video from this gentleman, Bart Ehrman I think is his name. He's not a KJV only guy. He's not really anti-KJV, but he's all about getting back to the original. I want what Paul actually penned. I want what Moses penned and all that kind of stuff. But I say that to say he come up with a thing where in Revelation we know the mark of the beast is the number of man, it's 666. Well apparently there are, and I believe he's correct, there are apparently a large number of manuscripts that have where the number for the mark of the beast, the number of the beast is 616. for whatever reason. The Greek numbers and all that stuff that were utilized there comes out to be 616. And so you've got a contradiction. Again, that's why we have one source of truth here with us. But that right there, he says, that's not a major doctrine, though. So that's not something that we need to make a big deal about. No major doctrines are really affected with these other more modern translations. No major doctrines. I'm pretty sure that's going to be a huge doctrine that they're going to have to have figured out in the tribulation here in the near-term future. Is it going to be 666 or 616? And I don't know how that's really going to manifest. I don't really know what that number is going to be or mean or represent. But if someone goes in there and be like, oh, this smart scholar that I found on the internet is talking about 616. Oh, well, this one is 666. So that's not the bad one. So I'm going to go ahead and. they're inadvertently feeding into the deception because they're taking away the authority that we have and we believe in in the scripture and they're putting it all in the knowledge of man and satan loves the knowledge of man that's the first thing he tempted adam and eve with was that you will be wise you will have knowledge of good and evil you will have these things that god is withholding from you and it's man's wisdom man's knowledge So anyway, so we see that we've seen it in COVID. You've seen it ever since really COVID was kind of the first trigger for me where you could directly take verses 10 through 12 and just be like, yep, that's humanity at its core right there. That's humanity. Many shall be offended. Many shall betray one another and shall hate one another. You had They were making commercials about family members turning in other family members. Grandpa couldn't come see the kids because he didn't have the shot or whatever, so he had to stay outside and wave at the kid through the window. You guys remember those, right? Absolutely ridiculous and pitiful. But family members were being turned against family members. And I'm not saying one way or the other, regardless of the shot or regardless of the disease and where it came from and where it didn't come from. That's not the point of this. The point is how easily and quickly did we see the world turn itself upside down and turn on one another, turn on each other. You got family members that kicked each other out of the family, out of the house, out of whatever, because one side refused to participate in said rituals. Like, it's absolutely insane. Absolutely insane. And so again, take Christianity out of here and put yourself in this tribulation period. It's gonna be absolutely out of control. You're gonna have these folks, you're gonna have Jews who decided to take the mark of the beast, turning in their other Jewish family members because they refused to. You're gonna have these guys saying, no, this is the Christ. This guy who's sitting on the throne saying he's God, this is the Christ. You don't believe it, I'm turning you into the authorities. And they're gonna get snatched up and they're gonna be part of the whole sacrifices and all that crazy wickedness. But it's not hard to see, not hard to believe now. We see it ourselves even today. But it says in verse 11 that many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many. These false prophets are going to be doing the deceiving. Of course, you can run those references all the way back into Revelation where you got the false prophet and it's tied directly to the deception of the beast and worshiping the image and all those things. That's the great deception is that mark of the beast. But there's so many other deceptions just of everyday life that are going to drive these people to make that decision one way or another. you start allowing yourself to be susceptible and succumb to those deceptions early on, it's just gonna be that much easier to follow that line into something that affects your eternity. Look at 2 Peter chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. These folks are going to be heavy and hard at work. to deceive many, to deceive the world. 1 John, just a few pages over to the right, 1 John chapter 4. False prophets, it's not a new thing. They existed in the Old Testament, and they exist today. Now, prophets, according to the Bible, aren't as common and rampant as they were back then, because we have completed scriptures, so the Lord doesn't need prophets today, right? But you and I can prophesy. I can tell you right now, without a shadow of a doubt, that when I die or when the rapture happens, I will get a glorified body. It's based on the word of God. It's based on truth of his word. Look at that, boom, I just prophesied. Now, the test of the prophet is to say, does this come true? And of course, when the rapture happens, we'll determine that, right? But you and I can prophesy. I can do all the wicked sins that I want to now, and it's not gonna affect me going up to heaven when I die. It's not gonna have any effect on my eternal security. I can preach that, I can teach that, I know that with confidence from the word of God. And that's what the Old Testament prophets were doing. They were taking scripture, they were taking God's word and saying to the people, this is gonna happen and this is gonna be this way. And they were prophets of God. But there are many false prophets and we see prophets around today even. We got the Mormon church has got, I think they're, if I remember right, they're head honcho. The Mormon church is called the prophet. Islam, Muhammad is the last prophet. You've got several other kind of Pentecostal realms. You've got some other more Eastern, Asian-type religions that they have prophets, or what they would consider to be prophets. But those folks are false prophets. And there's some key things here that are gonna allow us to see what is a false prophet today. But first, let's look at 1 John 4. Verse one, here it goes. Beloved, believe not every spirit. Just because they come in here saying they're preaching God's word, don't just believe it outright. There's something you gotta do. You've gotta keep going, try the spirits, whether they are of God. Because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of God. Here it is. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. There you go. That's it. That's what we got to look at. That's your step one validator. Verse three, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist. Whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. Spirit of Antichrist is already in the world. People are already trying to overthrow what Jesus Christ did and say it never happened, it didn't happen the way we say it happened, he was a good man, yes he existed because they can't get away from the actual historical evidence of his existence as a man, but they say he was not the son of God, he didn't rise again, all that kind of stuff. Those are false prophets. Even the Mormons who say that they teach and preach Jesus Christ It's a different Jesus Christ. It may have the same name, it may be the same time period, but their Jesus Christ that they teach and preach is not the Jesus Christ that you and I believe in. He is not the begotten Son of God. He is not who Jesus Christ is at his core that you and I believe in according to God's word. It's a different Jesus. So that prophet up there, the head of the Mormon church over there in Utah, he's a false prophet because he doesn't say that Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah, has come in the flesh. They don't believe the same one. Obviously the Mormons, excuse me, the Islam, the Muslims, you could say the same thing for them too. They don't believe Jesus Christ. Christ is the title, that's not his last name, you guys know that. They don't say that Jesus Christ, the Lord's Christ, has come in the flesh and therefore did all the things that the Bible says that he did. They are false prophets, so automatically you can throw out just about every single thing that they have to say. Just throw it out. Same thing with a lot of those Pentecostal groups. Obviously, it's going to be more prevalent in the Tribulation. They're going to be coming out of the woodwork. The devil is going to use those when he sets up his unholy trinity there in the Tribulation. He's going to utilize these false prophets across the world to spread his false message. And obviously, we know that he is not going to say that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh. He's going to say that, I am the Christ. So he is that Christ, so therefore he is a false prophet. That's a real simple test, real simple check there. That crazy lady a few years ago that stepped foot in our church, if you guys remember that, it was the first time any of us had heard Tyler Quigley's voice get raised above his standard decibel, kicked that lady out of this church. She came in saying that she was a prophet, that she was the son of God reincarnated, that he was in her body and all this kind of hot garbage. But she was she said she was a prophet. She was prophesying all this stuff. Well, she obviously doesn't believe who Jesus Christ was because that's not who Jesus Christ is. And it's not how he's coming back. She's teaching and preaching a false Jesus and therefore easily could be thrown out as a false prophet. So anyways. So how do we know you and I today? But the saints in the tribulation, how do we know, how do they know if a prophet is of God? You can stay in 1 John, we read it already, 1 John 4, verses 2 and 3, same thing, that's the criteria. But just turn a few pages to the right to 2 John, 2 John, obviously chapter 1, verse 7. It says, for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. So you've got the spirit of antichrist, you've got the antichrist, and you've got deception, false prophets all tied together, all with one common purpose. And the devil is using that spirit today, that spirit of antichrist in the world today, to already start deceiving the hearts of the people. already start deceiving the world. You see it through all the religions and all the pagan whatever's throughout history. You see that deception manifested and people have so easily, it's clear as day in God's Word, just believe the Word of God. It's clear as day exactly who Jesus Christ was and so they have to be deceived into believing something else. There's nothing more convincing than God's Word. There's nothing out there more convincing. You have to be deceived into thinking that the earth was created with a part of a big bang. You have to be deceived into believing that evolution is true. You have to be deceived into believing that your karma is actually going to have an effect on your day-to-day life and how you treat other people. You have to be deceived into believing those things. There's no evidence of that actually being true. There's no evidence of that. The Word of God has all the prophecies that have, all the prophecies in the Word of God, the ones that have taken place up to this point, every single one of them has been true to the letter. And the ones that haven't taken place yet, the ones that are second advent and future, they will take place to the letter as it was laid out and prophesied. But anyways, you have to be deceived, and that deception is in the world today, and obviously it'll be more prevalent that as well. Revelation 16, you're going to see the false prophet. Revelation 16 verse 13 says, And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. I wonder if these three spirits have anything to do with a spirit of Antichrist. They're not going to be preaching Jesus Christ. They're going to be preaching Antichrist. They're going to be preaching deception. Stay in Revelation. Jump over to chapter 19. In verse 20, so this is after Christ has come down now and revealed himself to the world. Chapter 19, verse 20, and the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them. He deceived them with those miracles. So signs and wonders are tied in with these prophets, these false prophets. that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire, burning with brimstone." So I'm just pointing out this false prophecy idea, this false prophet notion, is tied directly to the spirit of Antichrist, it's tied to deception, and it's tied to works. It's tied to signs and wonders that they're going to be partaking in and participating in. We're gonna see some other verses and make sure I got those notes down later on. Signs and wonders, and it's interesting, we'll get to it when we hit verse 14, but the gospel of the kingdom, signs and wonders are associated with this gospel of the kingdom. And Jesus Christ, every time the Bible talks about in the book of Matthew, he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom and he's healing and he's forgiving. He's doing signs and wonders. It's tied to that gospel kingdom. So that kingdom gospel is going to come back again and be preached in the tribulation period. And signs and wonders are going to be part of it. So the devil is going to have to play catch up and he's going to have to deceive and conduct these signs and wonders so that he can pull that attention to himself and keep it off of Christ. All right, verse 12. We're going to read verse 12 through 20 because they kind of all connect. So back in Matthew 24. We're not going to get all the way through verse 20 here this morning, likely, but we'll read it just for context as we move forward. So start in verse 12. It says, 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. It's future tense. 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. 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." He's pleading with the readers. You've got to get this, folks. 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, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. and woe 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." And we'll get to it probably next time, but this is mind-blowing to me, so I have to make mention of this now and probably mention it again next time. Verse 20, pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day. Some of you guys may have already heard this or known this. We kind of joke and say, oh, the flight, I wonder if it's actually talking about the flights, you know, like an actual get on an airplane and fly and flee somewhere. Did you know, why in the world would it say their flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day? Did you know that today, in the nation of Israel, the Israeli domestic flights, they've got, I think, three or four major flight carriers. They do not fly on Sabbath days. Back in the 80s when I think it was El Al was the main, they're like the American, they're the big airline. In the 80s they established, we will not fly on Shabbat, we will not fly on Sabbath. So every Saturday for 40 plus years, The three and four major airlines of Israel do not fly. You can see it today. You will not find a flight to be scheduled domestically in Israel. International flights still happen, but domestic flights do not take place on Sabbath. I just thought that was absolutely interesting, just absolutely mind-blowing. I don't know. Maybe it's actually talking about that. I hope the Antichrist doesn't set himself up and say he's God in the temple on Sabbath day, because that's when they're supposed to flee, because it's going to be difficult for them to find a flight to the wilderness. I don't know. We'll hit on that again probably next week, but that was just too good for me to not make mention of that. All right, verse 12. Verse 12 says, iniquity shall abound because iniquity shall abound. That the result of that iniquity, then the love of others, love of many will wax cold. So iniquity shall abound. Look at 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. Verse 7. It says, for the mystery of iniquity doth already work. All right, so there's some mystery involved here. We see it one way, but something else is actually going on under the hood. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work. Only he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. So they're going to be deceived into this thing. It's going to look good. It's going to feel good. It's going to appear to be the right decision, but it's iniquity. It's a mystery to them. They're not going to realize it until it's too late, or if at all, that this iniquity is what they're doing. This good decision that they're making is actually a bad one, and they've been deceived into this thing. But it's a mystery here that they're all going to be, that iniquity is going to be everywhere and they're not even going to realize it. This Mark of the Beast, it's going to be good. It's the only way that we can actually support our families and feed our people and all this kind of stuff. That's the right decision. That's the right decision. Iniquity is going to abound. And so therefore, because of that, the love of many shall wax cold. And that's going right off the coattails of verse 10 and 11, where people are turning in each other, turning in family members and friends and loved ones. They're turning those people in. They're being deceived. But that's because that iniquity is abounding. But it's a mystery. It's going to be a mystery there for the longest time. It's also interesting that you've got mystery Babylon, not the same mystery, but there's mysteries tied into that thing. It's all part of a deception. You believe one thing is one way, but unknowingly it's actually this, and it's actually something awful in God's eyes. But 2 Thessalonians 2, 7 calls iniquity a mystery because things are going to appear good and right, but it's really wicked and evil. Now, for the love of many, so wax cold. You guys can apply that today. You can probably look back, especially if you've been married for any period of time or have any involvement with just interacting with people. If you get involved in sin or someone gets involved in sin, you can see a direct relation of how that affects how you approach someone else, okay? Maybe normally you're loving and you're kind and you're patient and you're forgiving and various things, but then all of a sudden you get yourself distracted or maybe you get out of God's Word and you're letting iniquity abound in your heart. You treat other people, especially Christians, differently. You're not as patient, you're not as loving, you're not as kind. That your love of many is waxing cold because you're letting iniquity abound. So a lot of times it's like, you know, in personal examples, and it's happened in my past, where I know that iniquity has been abounding, and it's, I treat my wife a different way. And I could see it, and she probably definitely could tell, like, something's not right here. And there's iniquity there. You're not clean between you and the Lord. I don't remember who it was, but someone gave this illustration. If you get this vertical relation cleaned up and right, these horizontal relationships will naturally fall in place, and things will be much better there. Don't put this priority before this priority. And when you get your heart cleaned up and you take care of the iniquity that's in your life and in your heart, the love of many, especially charity towards the brethren, that will begin to abound much easier. But if you let sin get going, your love for everything godly, that's the key, the love for everything godly will wax cold when your love for everything ungodly begins taking over. Yeah, we hit on that. All right. Verse 13 says, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. Now there's a whole list of like 15 things that Dr. Ruckman had in his commentary of why this is nowhere near church age, is nowhere near you and I. It's like you don't find a single Christian anywhere in this passage. You find Jews being talked to in this passage. This is Jewish. You find the tribulation in this passage. You find the kingdom in this passage. You don't find the church anywhere. You don't find the body of Christ anywhere in this entire context. Nowhere near it. This supports that point that we've been preaching and teaching ever since Matthew chapter 1. Read the book of Matthew as if the church age doesn't exist. Don't let yourself creep your own existence into the doctrines of this. Look for the spiritual blessings, absolutely. Look for the practical applications that you can affect your day-to-day life. But from a doctrinal standpoint, you cannot say this was AD 70 and therefore the church brought in the kingdom and we're it's garbage. That is nowhere near what Christ is talking about in this entire section of Scripture. So, enduring to the end is not you, it's not me. It has nothing to do with our salvation, it has nothing to do with anything. But that's where you've got Methodists, you've got Catholics, any of those works-based salvations or works-based security of your eternal state, all of that starts coming in with verses like this. I have to do something. The initial salvation is not good enough. I now must live this certain way and do these certain things to maintain that status with God. And that is absolutely out of context. Out of context. So you've got he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. We've run those references here before in this study, as well as pastors run them many times as well. But enduring unto the end, that end there is the end of the time period, not the end of you and I's life or the end of the church age. It might be the end of their life, but it's the end of this world. And this world ends when Jesus Christ comes down at the second advent and establishes his kingdom. That's the world to come. We ran those a few weeks ago. But endure unto the end. Turn over to Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter 7, and this is all tribulational. It's all heavy, heavy tribulational. Revelation 7, verse 13, you've got 144,000 in the context here. Tribulation Saints, verse 13, says, and one of the elders answered, saying unto me, what are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came they? Well, that sounds like you and me. We've got white robes, it's the judgment seat of Christ and all that, right? Keep reading. And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, these are they which came out of great tribulation. Not came before, but came out of great tribulation. and have washed their robes, that's something they are doing, and made them white in the blood of the land. They are doing something to get their white robes made white and purified and cleaned. You and I, Jesus Christ, does the washing. He's the one that gives us the robes. He's the one that does the cleansing. Our sins are purged in His blood, the Bible tells us. We don't have to do anything here. Now, there's some spiritual application to a lot of this kind of stuff, even for these folks. They're not physically washing their robes in the blood of Jesus Christ. But the point is, is they have to do it. They have to do that thing that results in their robes being washed and cleaned. Not like you and I. You and I don't have to do a thing. Not a thing. You believe. That's it. But they have to do something. Let's see here. Hebrews chapter three. Hebrews 3, verse 6 says, "...but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are, We hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. There it is again. So that's not you and I. You can clearly see that. That's not you and I. Now we are part of the household of Christ, right? But we are already part of his household. We are already in the family. We've already been adopted if you're saved. You've already been put in God's hand and no one can take you out. No one can pluck you out. But it says here, Christ as a son over his own house. Whose house are we if? we hold fast the confidence. So there's something that someone is going to have to do. That's why we say so much of Hebrews is tribulational in its doctrine. Stay in Hebrews 3, look down at verse 14. For we are made partakers of Christ, there it is again, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end. you and I can, we can forget all about Christ. God forbid that ever happens, right? But you and I can get so upset and bitter towards God that we just, we completely write him off in our life. Guess what, the Lord's gonna come down, and I think it was a chalk talk or something, but I think it was Dr. Ruckman used the illustration. The Holy Spirit, when it's your time, he's gonna come and he's gonna grab ahold of you and he's gonna drag you, kicking and screaming, whether you like it or not, up into heaven. And your bad time is gonna show up at that judgment seat. And the Lord's gonna be like, why'd you forsake me? Why'd you turn your back on me? After I've done all this stuff for you, I've forgiven you all these things. It doesn't matter to you and I. We don't have to hold fast the confidence steadfast. We don't have to do that. But someone does. Someone's going to have to. They are made partakers of Christ if they hold fast to it. All right, the end here, mentioned I think last time, but the end here is referring to a period of time and not just someone's life here today. Now that end will be tied to the tribulational saint's life, the ones that end up getting killed there in tribulation. That's when the end is for them, so they hold fast unto the end, the end of the world, because that's where their end is. But verse 14, back in Matthew 24, verse 14 shows us that the end is the end of a period of time, okay, where the gospel of the kingdom is being preached. Verse 14 says, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. It's not talking about the end of anyone's life. It's a time period. So the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached to all nations, and then shall the end come. Let's see here, turn over to, and we'll hit more in verse 14 here momentarily, but before we get deep into that, turn over to Ezekiel chapter seven. Ezekiel seven, again, just looking at this, the end in terms of the second advent, in terms of tribulation, it's a period of time. Ezekiel seven, if I can get my pages to turn, look at verse two. Ezekiel 7, 2, Also thou son of man, thus sayeth the Lord God unto the land of Israel, An end, the end is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the end come upon thee, and I will send mine anger upon thee, and will judge thee according to thy ways, and will recompense upon thee all thine abominations. And mine eyes shall not spare thee, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense thy ways upon thee. And thine abominations shall be in the midst of thee, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, an evil and only evil, behold, is come. An end is come, the end is come. It watcheth for thee, behold, it is come." Man, that is an ominous passage. Like, holy cow, can you imagine someone in the tribulation period getting their hands on scripture and reading through that passage right there? This is coming from God Almighty and they're seeing it unfold before their eyes and they're like, yikes, he's coming and he's coming hot. He's coming in hot. Um, Daniel chapter 12, but again, it's not referring to the death of any saint. It's not referring to the death of anyone, everyone's lives or anything like that. There's something that triggers this end. It's the, The iniquity is full, we looked at those several weeks ago. The times of the Gentiles, all that. Daniel chapter 12, end of the book of Daniel here, Daniel chapter 12 in verse, we'll start in verse 4. Daniel 12, 4. But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of the end. It's a time. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, other on that side of the bank of the river. And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, how long shall it be to the end of these wonders? And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river. And when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swear by him that liveth for ever, that it shall be for a time, times and a half. And when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished. And I heard, but I understood not. Then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end." So you've got all these denominations, even Baptist churches that will teach and preach that this is, oh, the missionaries, the gospel's got to get around to all the world. The Lord's waiting to get us out of here. He's waiting to kick off this end until this gospel be preached because there's only one gospel. So the gospel of the kingdom, it's clearly talking about the gospel of the kingdom of God and not kingdom of heaven, right? So they get those things conflated, and they combine all these things, and they're getting their doctrines all screwed up. And then you wonder why so many folks are leaving the churches today. Because they're expecting certain things to come to pass. They're expecting the Lord to respond certain ways to certain things that you and I do every day, and the Lord doesn't. because it's not for you and me. These particular things have no effect whether or not you go to the farthest reaches of the world and preach the gospel to all nations. Yeah, we should do that, but the Lord's not waiting for that to be his trigger. That's not at all what the context is. But they get those things confused and you start teaching and preaching false doctrines. And those false doctrines are huge when it comes to you and I's everyday living, when it comes to you and I's salvation, when it comes to eternal security, when it comes to understanding the word of God, those key doctrines are essential. And it's not just the death, burial and resurrection that we have to worry about. It's not just as baptism for salvation or not. Yeah, that's crucial, but there's much more doctrines that all the Bible is all one piece. It's all one. It's God's story, it's God's word, it's God's plan, all that kind of stuff. It's all tied together, but you've got to be able to rightly divide. Enduring also, enduring at the end, enduring requires patience. Look at James 5. Common passage here, but this is where you find the phrase, you've heard the patience of Job, and we know that Job is tied directly to tribulation. James chapter 5, look at verse 8. Be ye also patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." So they've got to be patient to endure this stuff. They're waiting for the Lord to show up. Verse 9, grudge not one against another, brethren. Okay, so don't do what Jesus Christ is prophesying will happen. You don't have to live that way. Don't turn on each other. You've got to be one with each other in the Spirit. Lest ye be condemned. Behold, the judge standeth before the door. Remember, you know, you've ever seen a court or seen it on TV. The judge there is standing behind the door. He's waiting for the bailiff or whoever it is to bring him into the courtroom. He's standing behind that door. He's waiting for his time. And he says, all rise. And the judge walks in. He's no longer standing at the door at that point. It's too late. The judge stand before the door, verse 10. Am I supposed to go to verse 10? Let's see here. Yeah. Verse 10, take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering, affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy, which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. You endure. You go through some hard stuff. The Lord is going to be merciful towards you as long as you stand fast. Stand with the confidence of who Jesus is or who the Lord is and all that stuff that's being talked about in the tribulation, those doctrines there. Hold strong to that thing. The Lord's going to have pity and mercy on you. Absolutely will. And I think a lot of times the tribulation saints that are going to go through the trials and tribulations, the physical persecutions and murders and beheadings and all that stuff, I wouldn't doubt in the least that the Lord is going to give them the same level of grace that he gave a lot of those dark age martyrs, where you got the guys who are actually on the stake, being burned from the feet up, turning into char and ashes, and all they do, they have their eyes set on heaven. They're not pleading for their life. They're not saying, oh my goodness, please get me off this thing, save me. They're not. They're holding fast, and the Lord's like, I'm going to withhold some pain from you because you're standing fast on what you know is right. And I think the Lord is absolutely going to show pity to these people, these Jews here, His people that are going through this tribulation period. Absolutely is. And then look at Revelation 14, still on this point, enduring requires patience. Revelation 14. Our God is a good God. He's just, and He's right, and He's faithful. He's not just gonna send us through this stuff, and if you're doing right, He's not just gonna send it to you to watch you suffer and take pleasure in that suffering. Now, He takes pleasure in your suffering because you're doing it for His sake, but what I'm saying is it's not that He's up there hoping that, oh, I hope they feel every bit of this pain. That's not who God is. God is merciful. As long as you put Him first and you prioritize Him in all things and you stand fast to what you know is right and true. That's John Wycliffe. That's all those heroes of the faith back then that were persecuted and martyred. All those ones. I've got a fantastic book that I'm slowly working through because it's written in like 1800, English, so it's a lot more sophisticated and smarter than we are today, so it's taken me a while to get through. But it's about the translators of the King James and just their story, who they were, their credentials, all that kind of stuff, the type of men that they were. And the first opening portion of that is how the English language in terms of scripture came about and the evolution of the scripture throughout the English language from the 1400s all the way through the King James. And then it'll culminate at the King James and go through each of the companies there. But it goes through a lot of these guys who literally gave up their life because they knew something was different between what the Popes are teaching and what the Bible says. And they said, we want to get this thing translated, we want to get this thing published and sent out. And they did it with the right heart and the right mindset. Maybe they didn't have all of their doctrines figured out right because they're still fighting against that Catholic system, but the Lord says, I'm going to have pity on you. Thank you for the sacrifice and the suffering that you voluntarily put yourself into and to go through for my name's sake. And so they get put on the stake, they get tortured, all mutilated, all that kind of stuff. And the Lord's like, I'm going to spare you from some of this. I'm going to spare you because you've put me first. All right, we've got to keep going. Quit rambling. Revelation 14, verse 12. Here is the patience of the saints. Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. So, enduring into the end requires patience. Lord, you say in your word, you said that this is going to happen, you said this is going to be the case. Be patient. Be patient. Keep doing the right thing. Keep going the right direction. Keep withstanding the wicked one. Keep, you know, not allowing yourself to be deceived. Be patient. I'm coming back. Ruckman said it this way. He said, He that shall endure unto the end is plainly a reference to a law-abiding Jew in Palestine immediately preceding the advent of the Lord Jesus. And no amount of distortion could ever make it apply to anything else unless the distorter had a motive in perverting the Word of God. You've got to want this Bible to say something that it doesn't say. You have to. That's the only way. Otherwise, it's clear as day for this particular thing. All right, verse 14, and we'll be finished. It says, 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. This gospel of the kingdom, not the gospel of the grace of God. It's different. Things that are different are not the same. It's very clearly different because they're called two different things. But it is a gospel message nonetheless. This is a, and I feel like we add words to this every single time we go through it, but this is a literal, physical, visible, political, geographical, messianic, Davidic, Jewish, anyone else have anything else to throw on that? This is a physical, literal kingdom that is being preached and talked about. That's what this is. It's been prophesied. It's been promised to David in his line in, I think it was 2 Samuel. The Lord talks about he's preaching or he's giving David... David. David and Daniel. He's giving David a message that says, look, I promise the kingdom shall last through your seed. That's where that started, right there, the promise of that Davidic kingdom, that kingdom there. That's the gospel of this kingdom. But it's a physical thing, with the son of David, who was prophesied, with the son of David sitting on the throne in Jerusalem. The last passage we're going to look to, look at Matthew chapter 4, and then if you want to go ahead and turn, turn to Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 9. But there are signs and wonders, I mentioned it earlier, signs and wonders are associated with this gospel, so the devil's gotta pull people's attention away. But Matthew chapter four, look at verse 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. It goes hand in hand. Look at Matthew chapter nine, verse 35. Matthew 9 verse 35, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Those signs and wonders are directly tied to the gospel of the kingdom. Why? Jews require a sign. It's a Jewish gospel. You see that? But it also says there in Matthew 24, it says that it's to be a witness unto all nations. Notice it doesn't say it's going to be a witness unto all kingdoms, because the Lord's going to come back and He's going to say, the kings of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord, and the Lord's Christ, right? Remember that? So those kingdoms there, there's only going to be one kingdom. Now there's going to be, in the tribulation, there's going to be the ten federated kingdoms and all that kind of stuff. But those kingdoms are all about to be completely smashed to pieces and there's going to be one kingdom left. The rest are going to be nations. Now if the kingdom which we just established was Jewish or is going to be Jewish, then the nations must be Gentile. So this gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached to all the world for a witness unto all nations. So it's gonna be a witness to the Gentiles of who is this Christ? Who is this gospel, or what is this gospel being preached about? This isn't just the Lord coming back to save the Jews there. He's got a message for the entire world. And the gospel of the kingdom, what the Lord is gonna be able to do for those Jews there and save them and redeem them and all that stuff and set up that kingdom, that's gonna be a witness unto the nations, unto the Gentiles there to say, come and see. There was another witness unto the nations that was done in typology with the Queen of Sheba. Solomon there, a type of Christ, a millennial kingdom, she hears of the wonder and majesty of this king here. It's a witness unto the nations. And so the Gentiles come to the kingdom they come to the king and say, are you all this message that I'm hearing? Are you everything that this is cracked up to be? And she leaves there and says, I'm paraphrasing, but you know, the wonders and the knowledge and the wisdom that you have is beyond what I've even heard about. And the folks, that's exactly what it's going to be like when Jesus Christ comes back. The kingdom is the Lord's and so this gospel of the kingdom is to be a witness unto all the Gentiles of the world in the tribulation. They're going to start getting that message during the tribulation. So the gospel of the kingdom is going to be preached to the Jews there as they head out into the wilderness and flee for their lives. They're going to be getting that gospel message. And it's, be patient, it's coming, endure, do the right thing, be patient, and it's going to be a witness to the Gentiles. Gentiles who kind of have, you see it in the world today, even the unsaved kind of say, there's something different going on right now. There's something spiritual in the world right now. And they're going to come out and they're going to preach and they're going to see the witness and say, why are you guys fleeing? Why aren't you just taking this mark? You've got your own Jewish brethren that are partaking in this thing. And they're going to say, well, something's different here. Something's different. And they're already going to start being in tuned. I need to avoid this mark. I need to avoid this. I need to live like these guys are doing, because there's something true about this message, about this gospel that these folks are preaching and teaching about. It's all going to come together. The last thing I'll mention. Left Behind series, it's great, great book, kind of introduces some things, good stories and all that stuff, but not biblically, not doctrinally even close to being accurate. It's got some key events that are accurate, but how the folks get saved and come to Christ and all that kind of stuff is not true. They're not going to respond to Christ like you and I respond to Christ. They're going to respond to Christ based on how the Jews receive Christ, how that gospel of the kingdom is being preached out there. You've got the everlasting gospel will be preached as well. I don't know 100% if this is true or not, but I think possibly the gospel of the kingdom is going to be the Jewish gospel, and that everlasting gospel is going to be the Gentile gospel. And so those are going to be preached at the same time, according to Revelation. And so you've got that's going out to two different people that's going to be manifest to them in those different ways. But that gospel of the kingdom is going to be a witness unto all nations of the kingdom there. All right, let's close the Word of Prayer. We'll take a 10-minute break, and then we'll start back up at the top of the hour. Heavenly Father, Lord, we love you. Again, I just thank you for the opportunity just to dig deep into your word and just get something that goes beyond just the surface, Lord. And I'm thankful that we can still pull some personal practical applications to affect our lives, Lord. And even if it's just the life that we're in, we've got some things we have to endure and some things that we have to work through and be patient with, Lord, as we wait on you for many things, Father. But I'm thankful that we can have confidence in your word. As you've taught us how to properly understand it and rightly divide it, Lord, it takes care of so many questions that I know personally I've always had my whole life. Lord, it just takes care of all the uncertainties and the doubts that might creep in. Lord, we just have to believe your book. I'm thankful for it, Father. I thank you for the clarity of it, and I'm thankful for teachers before me that have been faithful to your word, Lord, and preached from your word and just held fast and held true to it. Lord, I pray that you just help us to understand it and be able to apply it to our lives and be able to be a witness to others and help others to see that there's something different about this book and something different about you. Lord, we love you. I pray that you'd be with us the rest of this morning, and bless the service to come. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.