Looking at the historical, when we look at the Bible and interpret it, looking at the grammatical historical interpretation of the Bible, what does it say grammatically? It's very important, words have meaning and figures of speech have meanings and so we don't take what God's Word says and put our own spin on it, put our own ideas on it. Scripture interprets scripture. And looking at the context is very important. And so looking at the historical aspect of interpretation, because the book is written in a historical setting, it was written to certain people in a certain place, there's time frames to that. why it was written, the setting and all those things. So it's very important to understand different aspects of scriptures, especially when relating to Bible prophecy. If we don't catch the time words, if we don't catch who it's written to, what a passage is, who it's written to, who it's written about, what a promise, whose promise it is. There are promises that are given to Israel that don't apply to us or promises that are given to individuals that don't apply to us. There may be principles that apply, general principles, but those particular promises aren't necessarily for us. So when we sing the song, every promise in the book is mine, that's not true. Every promise that relates to me is mine. So it's really important to understand the historical setting. Before we get into it this morning, let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask his blessing. Father, we are grateful that we can gather this morning. We are grateful for your word and for this study on prophecy. Father, we look forward to, Lord, the things that are written, the prophecies that are yet unfulfilled. We look forward to the time when they will be fulfilled. Father, we look forward to the time of Christ's return to receive us unto himself. And I pray you'd help us be faithful until he comes. to occupy till he comes. And I pray you'd help us as we study this, that we would become encouragers of one another. Father, as we see that day approaching, that you'd help us to be confident in your word and confident in your promises. Lord, we are thankful for your faithfulness. And I pray, Father, you bless your word to our hearts today. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. And we consider different laws of interpretation. We won't look at all the different laws. If you want to study the subject of hermeneutics, which is the study of interpreting the Bible and different laws relating to that, you can buy books on that. You can look online and find books on hermeneutics. But we'll look at some specific laws that relate to eschatology, the study of last things. And the first one is the law of fulfillment, the law of fulfillment. Unfulfilled prophecy must be interpreted in the light of fulfilled prophecy. The only way to know how God will fulfill prophecy in the future is to figure out how he fulfilled it in the past. So when we examine fulfilled prophecies in the Bible, how do we see them fulfilled? Well, they were fulfilled literally. When God gave a prophecy, they were fulfilled literally. And we consider if all the prophecies that he's already given that have been fulfilled, they've been fulfilled literally, then the ones that aren't fulfilled, we should expect them to be fulfilled literally. We shouldn't expect them to be fulfilled symbolically or in some other non-literal fashion. They should be fulfilled as the rest were fulfilled. Turn if you would over to Luke 4. Luke 4 verses 16-21 we have an example of this. Jesus was coming to Nazareth, he went into the synagogue. Luke 4 verse 16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor and has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and sat down. The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. So he's looked back at a Messianic prophecy, Isaiah 61, verses one and two. Look back at that prophecy. and read that, read a portion of it. He didn't read the whole thing. He read a portion of it and said that that part is fulfilled in your ears. With Christ's ministry, those things were being accomplished. If we look at Isaiah 61, verses one and two, and we look at the full prophecy, Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn. He did not read verse number two there in Book of Luke. Why? Because it wasn't the day of vengeance. So that part, Jesus didn't say that that part was fulfilled. But if the rest of those, what he read, if the rest of it was fulfilled literally, is the day of vengeance, should it also be taken literally? Yes. that hasn't been fulfilled yet, that part will also be fulfilled literally. So the law of fulfillment, we look in the Bible, we see how God interpreted or how God fulfilled prophecy in the past. If he's fulfilled it literally in the past, the prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled, they'll also be fulfilled literally when they come to pass. So the law of fulfillment. The next one is the law of perspective. Events separated by time often appear to be prophetically coincidental. Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2 are an example of that where we have part of that relating to the ministry of Christ during His first coming, but the last part of it, all part of the same sentence in Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2, the last part of it hasn't been fulfilled yet. It's already been 2,000 years and that part has not been fulfilled. And so there are prophecies that we might think they're all being fulfilled at the same time, but there's a difference in perspective. An illustration of this that people have used, and it gives the idea of this. How many have ever been out west where there's real mountains? A lot of people in here have been out where there's real mountains. The mountains in Missouri aren't really mountains, they're hills. We've been out where there's a lot of mountains and you see mountain peaks, you see a mountain range. They may all look like they're in the same place, but they may be separated by 10, 15, 20 miles at the different peaks. And there's valleys in between and maybe even other mountains in between that we don't even see. But from our perspective, they look like they're right on top of each other. And as the prophets, you can see, God gave them a vision of what was going to take place. They saw the mountain peaks and wrote those down, but there's valleys in between that they didn't prophesy about. Daniel 9, verses 24 to 27, is We see this in Daniel's 70 weeks that were determined upon his people. So in Daniel 9, verses 24 to 27, this prophecy is specifically about Israel. And he says, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people. God is speaking to Daniel, who are Daniel's people, the Jews, the Israelites. So 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city. to finish the transgression. So this is the purpose of these 70 weeks, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. Has everlasting righteousness been brought in? Are we experiencing that today? No, we're not experiencing everlasting righteousness. So that part has not taken place yet. to seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy, so the Messiah. Has he been anointed? In some aspects he has, during his first time here, but as King, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords ruling on earth, has that happened yet? No, that part hasn't happened yet. So there's some things in this prophecy the purpose of this prophecy that have not taken place. So in verse 25, he starts relating these 70 weeks. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks. The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublous times. And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. So from the time of when the commandment went forward to rebuild Jerusalem until Jesus came, that was 69 weeks. Now it wasn't 69 weeks of days. The word week here means just a group of seven. So these are weeks of years. So after 69 weeks of years to the day. to the very day when Christ, it was actually to the day of, in the Psalms it says, this is the day the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. That's a specific reference to the day when Christ went into, rode upon the donkey into Jerusalem and we call it Palm Sunday. That was that specific day and that was that 69 weeks was that point to the day. We won't go into all the chronology of that, but it's pretty amazing, God's timetable. So to that point was at 69 weeks. Then it says, and after three score and two weeks, so after those 69 weeks, shall Messiah be cut off, he's going to die, but not for himself. and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary and the end thereof shall be with the flood and unto the end of the war desolations are determined." So after that 69 weeks the city would be destroyed, the sanctuary would be destroyed, when did that take place? 70 A.D., not 33 A.D. when Christ was crucified. 70 A.D., over 35 years later, that took place. So did the 70th week begin after he rode in on the donkey? No. The 60th week ended. The 70th week is described in verse number 27. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. This is the last week, the 70th week. In the midst of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations, he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined, shall be poured upon the desolate. Now that 70th week, what are other terms we use to describe that? We're going to study this more in depth during the series, but what is Daniel's 70th week? What are some other ways we describe that in the Bible? What future time period is it? The tribulation period, the seven year tribulation period that are described for us in Revelation 6 through 18. So it's that seven year time period. that is yet future that's described in the book of Revelation 4. It's also referenced in other portions of the Bible. It's called the time of Jacob's trouble in the book of Jeremiah. So we have those 70 weeks. That 70th week has not taken place yet. And there are those that would say, well, it has taken place. Those 70 weeks were just one right after the other. Well, The 69 weeks were exactly, to the day, 69 weeks. The temple wasn't destroyed for another 38 years. And then this confirmation of the covenant and the things in verse number 27, those haven't taken place. People say, well, that's taken place, that's already passed. Well, why is that 38 years in there? What's that a part of? Because that's not part of the 70th week. This is the law of perspective. Daniel saw all of them, but from the time of Christ's crucifixion until now, that 70th week has not started. Why? Israel rejected Christ. They they've been, you could say, put on the shelf for now. Gentiles have been grafted in, and God is, we're in an age of grace. He establishes churches, they've gone out, they're preaching the gospel, and when the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, Christ will start dealing with the Jews again, and that 70th week will begin. But Daniel saw it as just a single unit of 70 weeks. From our perspective, we understand we're kind of in the valley. He's on the mountain peaks, we're in the valley between the 16th and 17th week. So that principle we see at many, many places in the Bible where prophecy is given and it's not fulfilled one after the other. It's fulfilled and there's lots of time space in between different aspects. It's the law of perspective. The next is the law of parentheses. or a gap, and again, that's similar to the perspective there. With some Bible passages, certain periods of time are ignored, not even dealt with. The Old Testament prophets, they prophesied about Christ's birth, his death, his resurrection, his kingdom, but we don't see prophecies concerning this present time specifically. We see characteristics of it, which we're going to look at as we get into the next lesson. We see characteristics of this time period, but no specific prophecies concerning this period. So there's just a gap where we don't see things preached about. We have the law, next the law of symbolism. A symbolic language must be received literally, understood representatively, and interpreted contextually. Okay, so what are we saying there? The name of a symbol must be taken to mean just that. The Bible is talking about a mountain and he's using it symbolically. We understand that a mountain is a mountain. We understand that a star is a star. A candlestick is a candlestick. We know what those symbols are and a symbol is just being used to represent something else, but there's certain characteristics of the symbol that also represent what it's symbolizing. And the book of Daniel describes Christ's kingdom as a mountain that fills the earth and crushes all the rest. Well, we understand what a mountain is. It's something that's firm. You can say it's unmovable. And Christ's kingdom is symbolized by a mountain that fills the whole earth, something that's not going to be moved. A candlestick. What are some characteristics of a candlestick? It can give light. Candlesticks are symbolic of what in the book of Revelation? Churches. We can see the symbolism there. We're to be giving forth light. We're the light bearers in the world. So there's symbols, and we can look at the symbols and see how they represent. And more often than not, the symbols are explained in the Bible in the context of when they're given. Not always, but oftentimes they are even in the immediate context. or in the book that it's in, or somewhere else in the Bible, we can see what those symbols mean, how they're to be interpreted. We don't have to guess and make things up. Revelation 1, verses 12 through 20 is an example. We won't read that, but it talks about the golden candlesticks, the stars in Christ's hand, and that we're specifically told the candlesticks are these, the stars are these. We're told what they symbolize. We don't have to make things up and guess. So it's very important that we don't, when we see symbolic language in the Bible, that we don't try to put our own interpretation on it. Because it's symbolic, we can just make anything up. We can't make anything up. When, if you were writing a story and you're using symbolic language to describe something, you wouldn't want those reading it just to make up things of what that's supposed to symbolize. You want them to understand from your perspective as the author, this is what I mean. And don't put some other spin on it to make my book or make my story say something that it doesn't say. And God doesn't want us to take his word and put our own spin on it to make it say what we want to say. God's word is his word, not ours. So we need to interpret it how he wants us to interpret it. So we consider the historical grammatical interpretation of Scripture, it's important that we take things in context, historically, we look at them properly by the proper laws of interpretation. When we think next of literal method of interpretation, literal is one of your fill-ins, the literal method of interpretation, the method of interpreting, as we've already described, looking at a passage in its grammatical historical context, taking it at face value to mean what it says and it says what it means, unless we're compelled to take it some other way. When we read the Bible in that context by a literal method of interpretation, when we read through the prophecies, we will come out with the understanding that Christ is going to come back to this earth. He's going to rule here. He's going to come back before a millennium of a thousand years begins. He's going to come here personally. He's going to be here on earth. He's going to rule personally from earth over a kingdom that is a thousand years long. That's how we're going to interpret it, because that's what the Bible says. We're not going to put a spin on it and say, well, we're living in the millennium now, or there isn't a millennium. If you just read the Bible for what it says, you won't come away with it thinking that it's something that's not actually going to take place. An example of deviating from the literal method of interpretation, there's a school of a lot of liberal Protestant churches hold to what's called preterism. A preterism interprets biblical prophecies, such as in Daniel, Matthew 24, the book of Revelation, that they've all been fulfilled. All the prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled, all of them, they're fulfilled. And so those that hold to full preterism, they say every prophecy in the Bible is fulfilled, even Christ's second coming, the resurrection, the final judgment, all that was fulfilled in AD 70. Everything is fulfilled. Nothing's left to be fulfilled yet. Everything in the Bible is fulfilled prophecy. Well, what does that leave us? Well, there's no resurrection. How can you look at the scriptures and know what they mean, because if everything's fulfilled, and there's things that described as yet future that hasn't happened yet, how do we interpret those? If we're supposed to say that already fulfilled, we can't even grasp, it'd be confusion. Not very many people hold a full preterism, but many hold to a partial preterism. They say that many of the prophecies, such as the Great Tribulation, the destruction of Jerusalem, that was fulfilled. So most of what takes place in the book of Revelation, that has been fulfilled, but the resurrection hasn't taken place yet, the final judgment hasn't taken place yet, but as far as most of the book of Revelation, that has taken place. Albert Barnes, many of you read his commentaries, I like his commentaries, he's a preterist. So on Matthew 24, verse 14, in that, earlier on in verses three and four of that chapter, the disciples asked, you know, when's the end gonna come? Tell us about the end times. That's their question in verse three and four. So he said, upon the Mount of Olives, And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? So they're asking about the destruction of the temple. In verse number two, Jesus talked about that. So they're asking, well, when's that gonna take place? What are the signs of your coming? What's the end? So three different questions in there. And so Jesus starts telling them in verse number four, and down to verse number 14. Some of the characteristics, we'll look at that specifically in this in the next lesson. But he starts talking about the end time not to be deceived. And in verse number 14, he says this, in this gospel, the kingdom should be should be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. So Albert Barnes explains that phrase, then shall the end come. He says it refers to the end of the Jewish economy, the destruction of the temple and the city. So he takes the end there to just describe what happened in 1870. She takes it out of the context of the original question of when is the end of the world? In verse number three, what should be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Well, the end of the world is not the destruction of the temple in AD 70. That's not the end of the world. But that's what he takes it. And he incorrectly states that this is just the end of the Jewish economy. Another Another commentator suggests caution in interpreting it too literally. So when you read through Matthew 24, make sure you don't look at it too literally. So we look at the Bible and we interpret it literally, but there's also the spiritualizing method of interpretation. This is your last fill-in on that lesson, spiritualizing method of interpretation. The method of interpreting a literary text regards the literal sense as the vehicle for a secondary, more spiritual, more profound sense. So this is someone that they look at a passage and they want to show you just how smart they are. So they're going to put a spin on that and really make it so hard and deep and confusing that you'll sit there and say, wow, that person must be really smart. How can they get that out of the Bible? They must have studied the Bible for decades to be able to understand it so deeply that I can't even grasp it. Does God give us his word so we can't grasp it? He wants us to grasp it. God hasn't written his word in such a confusing manner. Anyone can understand it. Even a child can understand it. Now they'll obviously need to learn how to read and they'll need to study it. But even a saved child, you have a 10 or 11 or 12 year old child, they're saved and they have the Holy Spirit within them, they can study God's word and they can understand it. Will they grasp everything? Probably not. There'll be some things that they'll need to grow in their understanding. But there are children in our church that, there are some children that aren't even saved yet. There are some children in our youngest classes that understand passages of the Bible better than some Bible scholars do. because they've been taught when you read the Bible, God says what he means, it means what he says, and they can read and say, well, this is what God says, so that's what it means. And there are scholars that say, well, that's what is written, but that's not really what it means, it means something else. And so they're trying to spiritualize it. So they try to be very flexible. So the 1,000 year reign of Christ or the 1,000 years in which Satan is bound, they spiritualize that and they say that right now we're in that 1,000 year period. We're in that age of grace when the devil is bound or they will say that's just a picture of heaven. That 1,000 year reign of Christ, that's just a picture of heaven and Satan won't be around anymore. Well, if that's the case, when he's released after 1,000 years, what is that supposed to represent? After we're in heaven for some indifferent amount of time, is the devil gonna somehow deceive a vast multitude that are in heaven? Say people that are in heaven, he's gonna deceive them so badly that God's gonna destroy them eventually as well? Well, that doesn't make any sense. They'll say that Israel is the church. They'll say that because or the church is Israel, they'll say, church has replaced Israel since infant baptism was part of, or since circumcision was part of the Israelite economy, and we've replaced Israel, then now we have infant baptism instead of circumcision, and those spiritualized things. And we don't look at the Bible and interpret it in that way. So we consider interpreting the Bible, we look at it, Just read it for what it says. If there's a figure of speech, take it as a figure of speech. When Jesus says, I am the door, don't picture in your mind, well, Jesus must look like that. Or maybe he looks like this one that's not frozen. Maybe he looks like this one that's solid wood. No, that's a metaphor. We understand it as a metaphor. We don't take it literally that he is literally a door. A door is symbolic. It's a place of entrance or a place of exit. It's a place that closes something off from another thing. Well, Jesus is the door. How do you want to get to the Father? Jesus said, no man comes unto the Father but by me. You're not going to climb up some other way. You're not going to go in some other direction. It's only through the door. And he's the door. So we interpret things how you read it. So when you read the Bible, you don't have to assume that there's something that you're missing. Read for what it says. If you don't understand it, read it again, and keep studying it. And if you have the Holy Spirit within you, John says you have no need that anyone teach you. The Holy Spirit within you will teach you and will help you. Does that mean you can skip out on church and not be around God's people? No, God commands us to be in church, to be under God's word, to study God's word with other believers, to worship him together corporately, to be under the preaching of God's word. We need that. But when you're at home, you don't need somebody else to interpret the Bible for you. You can go to God's word and study it and understand it. So it's very important, especially in the realm of Bible prophecy, what's yet future. So to consider the next lessons that we'll be looking at today, we want to start in on what are some characteristics of the last days. But we'll study what premillennialism is. We'll also touch on post-millennialism and amillennialism, but won't dive into those. We'll just lightly touch on them so you can understand it. And when you read what other people say, and are coming from that perspective, you'll be able to recognize that. We'll look at Israel, the Gentiles, and the church, looking at those and are they different? What's the difference in them? Who plays a role in the end times? That's really important. We'll look at the rapture, what the Bible says about the rapture. We'll look at the tribulation, Daniel's 70 weeks. We'll look at the book of Revelation, not in depth, but we will go through that. We'll look at Armageddon. Gog and Magog, those different topics like that. And if there's other topics that you want to be dealt with, maybe some questions you have, just let me know. There's a lot we can look at. There's a lot we will be skipping over. But if there's something specific you want to look at, just let me know. If you would, turn over to Matthew 24. We'll transition into the next lesson sheet this morning. consider the characteristics of the last days. Before we get into that, are there any fill-ins that you've missed on the first one? Any questions that you have on that first lesson we've been in for a couple weeks? Okay. The study of man. Eschatology. I had that one marked as on your lesson. Eschatology is a theological term for prophetic studies. It comes from the Greek word eschatos. Anthropology is the study of man. Anthropology. Soteriology, it's S-O-T-E-R-I-O-L-O-G-Y. Soteriology is the study of salvation. Harmartiology, H-A-R-M-A-R-I-T-I-O-L-O-G-Y. Harmartiology is the study of sin. All right, Matthew 24. Let's begin at verse number three. Actually, let's look at verse number, we'll start with verse number one. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, see ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. And 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? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. Ye shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. 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. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And we'll be looking at chapter 24 and 25 more in depth, but we'll just stop there for today. We see some characteristics here of the last days. Christ is just describing what's gonna take place before the end. And the first one that we'll look at on your list is moral decay. Moral decay. And you have some verses written down in your notes that we'll be looking at, so you can follow along. Moral decay. That's not just here in the States, it's around the world. We see this decay going on. I read something interesting yesterday. Let me pull it up for you. It was entitled China's War Against Decadence. It was from a January 23rd article from a magazine called Unheard, U-N-H-E-R-D. And the title of the article was TikTok, Weapon of Mass Distraction. To this day, many in China believe Western liberalism leads to decadence. But one man has done more than anyone to turn this thesis into policy. Despite not being well-known outside China, Wang Huning has been China's top ideological theorist for three decades, authoring many of Xi Jinping's policies. Among the Chinese, he's widely known as Guashi, or Teacher of the Nation. Although Wang refuses to do press or even speak with foreigners, his books reveal something of his worldview. His 1991 America Against America based on his travels a few years prior, has since become a key CCP text for understanding the U.S. The premise is simple. The conflict between America's economic system and its value system have made the country fundamentally unstable, destined for commodification, nihilism, and decadence. As Wang morbidly diagnoses, the country will eventually collapse under the weight of its own contradictions. In a 1988 essay, he wrote that the only way a nation can avoid the U.S.' 's problems is by instilling core values, a national consensus of beliefs and principles rooted in the traditions of the past and directed toward a clear goal in the future. This idea has been central to President Xi's governance strategy which has emphasized the core socialist values of civility, patriotism, and integrity. Obviously we don't agree where China's at on things, but here's an author that's looking at the U.S. and looking at our contradictory values. We'll hold up certain values as right and yet we'll allow materialism and entertainment and just our desire to be free from everything. Psalm 2 describes one of these characteristics of the last days. This is a Messianic Psalm and we'll look at, we'll be back in our text, 2 Timothy here in just a bit, but in Psalm 2, It says, why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. God has set some bands and cords about mankind. He's given us laws. He's given us his law. He's given us a conscience in our hearts. He's written his law on our hearts. Yet man wants to do away with all of that. We want to be completely free. And in the States, we are we describe ourselves as free people. So we're free from everything. And it's a lot worse as you move west, as you move towards the west coast, you have a lot more people that are more independently minded than those in the south or on the east coast, where we've people growing up in the Bible Belt, they grew up with the But growing up with the understanding of the Bible, maybe from their grandparents or even great-grandparents, they still hold that as, at least the principles, they kind of hold that as a governing force. As you move further west, there's no governing force. There's nothing that can just keep them from doing anything they want to do. They want that independence. And yet we hold up different values, but what the Communists have understood that many Christians don't understand is that we can't leave God's Word and the principles of God's Word and just live how we want to live without that destroying our lives. And one of the characteristics of the last days, which Paul described to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 verse 1 as perilous times. Does this know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such, turn away. A great description of the last days and the moral decay that we see. And I wanna read Jude, verses 17 through 19, and we'll get into commenting on this, we'll just kind of introduce this first point, and then next week we'll We'll jump in. But in Jude, verse number 17, he says, Beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. And we're living in a time where that, so many mockers out there, you can go on YouTube and find thousands upon thousands of videos or on Instagram or TikTok, other places, thousands and tens of thousands of videos of people mocking the Bible, mocking godliness, mocking righteousness, mocking purity, and throwing off all constraints because of their lifestyle. and whatever that lifestyle is. Maybe a lifestyle of just sitting home, eating Doritos, playing video games, and living off welfare. I saw a video recently of a woman showing off all the candy and all the junk food that she had that she got off, that she's paying for by her food stamps. and the free rent they have, and the money they get every month, and they're just sitting home doing nothing. And she was bragging about that, of just enjoying living off other people's money. Well, that kind of lifestyle is just as wrong and wicked and contrary to the scriptures as the sodomite lifestyle. They're both contrary to God's Word. They're both throwing off God's laws and God's constraints and living how they want to live. So that moral decay, we'll look at that more in depth next week. One of the main characteristics that we see here in the US, we see this moral decay in a great way. And it ought to, it shouldn't discourage us. I mean, we ought to be discouraged, maybe in the sense of when it affects God's people and our labor for the Lord. But we also ought to be encouraged knowing that we're living very close to Christ's return. And we ought to be encouraged by that and ought to step up our faithfulness to him, not be discouraged and slink back in the darkness and just hunker down and do nothing. we ought to be more faithful, knowing that Christ is coming back, and we ought to be occupied until he comes. So we'll jump into that next week, this next lesson sheet, and look at moral decay, and then there'll probably just be a one-week lesson. Next week, we'll probably finish the page that you have. But again, if you have any specific prophetical studies that you want to make sure we hit upon, Just text that to me or tell me and we'll make sure we hit on those topics.