Jeremiah chapter 2, verses 4 through 9. What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me and went after worthlessness and became worthless? They did not say, where is the Lord who brought us up from the land of Egypt, who led us in the wilderness, in a land of deserts and pits, in a land of drought and deep darkness, in a land that none passes through, where no man dwells? and I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priest did not say, where is the Lord? Those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherds transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after the things that do not profit. Therefore I still contend with you, declares the Lord, and with your children's children I will contend. Matthew chapter 24, verses 9 through 14. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. and because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold, but the one who endures to the end will be saved, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Brothers and sisters, this is the word of the Lord. Most merciful God, we thank you and praise you for your word to us this day. You have opened it to our eyes that we might read it and to our ears that we might hear it. But Father, we pray more so. By the power of your Holy Spirit, you might cause us to understand these things in the depth of our souls. Cause your word to go forth, we pray, by your might, by your power. Cause it to go forth and not return void, to serve your purpose in the hearts and lives of each one of your people here today. Father, work your word in us, we pray, that as we attend to these things, we might gain a greater knowledge of the truth of what is before us, that we might gain greater understanding and heavenly, divine wisdom. And Father, we pray that as you grant us these things, you might open the eyes of our hearts once again, that we might behold not only the wisdom we find herein, but that we might behold Jesus Christ himself, he who is the Word made flesh, that as he is lifted up in our midst, we might look to him, rejoice in him, and find ourselves once again refreshed. and restored in the joy of our salvation. For Father, we pray that as we look to your word, you might build us up in faith, that you might strengthen us in character and hope, that you might sanctify us by the blood of your own Son, that in all things we might be made more like him. Work these things in us, we pray, for the sake of Jesus Christ and for your honor and your glory alone, amen. Please be seated. In the mid to late 19th century, one of the particular topics of theological conversation that emerged, particularly among American Christianity, was that of eschatology, or the study of last things. From the Greek word eschatos, meaning last, the word eschatology was first used in 1838, and has been used ever since in discussions about end times, or the return of Jesus, or the question of millennial ages, and so on and so forth. And while there were certainly theologians who wrote of these things beforehand, for the scriptures speak of these things, the writing and discussion concerning eschatology proper really seemed to explode after the United States Civil War. And in these discussions and in these writings, one of the core texts that was studied and debated and still is, is the text that is before us in Matthew chapter 24, from where we are this morning through the end of this chapter and into chapter 25. For what Jesus speaks of in these verses in response to the question of the disciples at the beginning of the chapter is, in large part, future telling. He is speaking of last things. He is speaking of things to come. They asked him specifics about what was to come, and so he answered them. Yet, as we noted last time, Jesus did not answer them with a timetable. He did not answer them with a chart or a graph. He did not answer them with a series of dates. And so what he did say is left to the church to understand and interpret throughout the ages. But before we do so, with the specific text in Matthew this morning, we need to pause and lay some groundwork so that we can know we are all on the same page before we move forward. All of us have different backgrounds in the faith. And we have been told different things concerning the end times by different people. We have been told different things concerning the timeline of eschatology and what might happen when. And so it behooves us to understand how we are going to approach the rest of Matthew chapter 24 and 25. In this, within Christendom, we recognize there are generally three schools of thought concerning the interpretation of end-time prophecies. The first school of thought is Preterism, the second school of thought is Historicism, and the third school of thought is Futurism. There is a fourth school, Idealism or Spiritualism, but this school has been rejected by most theologians across the board as incompatible with Orthodox Christianity. But as a matter of housekeeping, before we move too much further, we will address these schools briefly for understanding how we are going to interpret the passage before us, and over the coming weeks will be vital in informing us of what the meaning of the text actually is, what we are to draw from it for our understanding, what we are to draw from it for our growth and godliness. And so working Backwards to the list I just gave, idealism, that one that has been mostly rejected, is the notion that none of the biblical end times prophecies, none of those spoken of here in Matthew or in Daniel or in Revelation, are fulfilled in any real or historical or tangible way. Rather, they are spiritualized and idealized symbolically and subjectively, depending on the point of view of the one reading them. This view has been rightly and soundly rejected by most theological traditions across the board. The next view, moving backwards, is futurism. This is the view held primarily by those who study the scriptures through a dispensational lens, that is, who understand the relationship between the church and Israel and the prophecies of the scriptures as being mostly worked out in the future through specific dispensations or epochs of time in human history. This view gained much popularity in the late 19th century before becoming prevalent among most broadly evangelical Bible and many Baptist churches in America. But it is also a view commonly rejected by those who stand in the Reformed tradition as a peculiar and convoluted view, assuming a great number of things that are not clearly or by inference taught in the scriptures. And so we will not spend much time looking at futurism either. For our purposes in approaching the scriptures from a covenantal reformed perspective, we will address preterism and historicism in a little bit more detail before moving on. And we will discuss why we, or I, as I speak these things, will be taking the approach of historicism as the explanation of the texts that are set before us. The school of thought that is often referred to as Preterism comes from the Latin praetor, which means past or beyond. Adherents to this view of Preterism believe that the prophecies of the Bible which point to the end times, whether from Daniel or Revelation or from Matthew, all of these prophecies have been fulfilled in the first century AD. usually by AD 70 and the destruction of the temple and the leveling of the city of Jerusalem. Preterists understand the words of Jesus to be a direct answer to the disciples and that the answer to all three of the questions they raised were realized within the 40 years after Jesus' ministry, including his second coming in a mystical spiritual sense rather than a physical bodily sense. While there are some in the Reformed tradition who hold this position to be consistent in a redemptive historical interpretation of the scriptures, it is hard for me particularly to see how preterism is possible. While some of the things Jesus spoke of came to pass by AD 70 with the destruction of the temple and with the destruction of Jerusalem, it is difficult to read his words about the gospel going to the ends of the earth about other things that happened after the destruction of the temple that don't look like they were necessarily fulfilled. And when you take into context what Paul talks about, the return of Jesus Christ when he's speaking to the Thessalonians, it's difficult for me to say Jesus actually returned in AD 70. And so I have a little bit of trouble with preterism and take the position of the historicist. The historicist position of these things is that there are multiple layers to many of the prophecies that Jesus offers us, particularly those dealing with eschatology or the end times. Some of these things have been fulfilled. Some of these things were fulfilled, particularly in AD 70, but some of these things are still awaiting fulfillment in the history of redemption and will not be completed until the physical bodily return of Jesus Christ a second time. Thus, as we work through Matthew 24 and 25, we will do so looking first at how these things might have been fulfilled in the time of the disciples, That's how Jesus was answering the question. He was answering the question to the disciples in their day and age. But secondly, how these things might also be fulfilled in the post-apostolic age. For throughout the scriptures, we often find this already-not-yet tension, this motif that informs how God works among his people across the ages. When we think of the redemption we have in Christ, we recognize that everything that Christ did in redeeming us from sin and death was typified, was presupposed in the Exodus. That what happened there physically was also a picture of what God was doing with his people spiritually, and what he would do with his people spiritually. And so we see this idea throughout scriptures. that there is this already not yet kind of thing happening, that some of the prophecies of the scriptures are fulfilled in their time, and some are fulfilled multiple times. Some are fulfilled two or three times. And so we must be careful when we read these things not to just put a blanket framework on it and say, this is how it must be. We must be careful to interpret these things in the history of redemption and in what God has promised throughout the Scriptures. And so as we turn to Matthew 24 this morning, we understand in context that Jesus is first answering his disciples' questions to him, and he is answering them in the way that they can understand initially. But secondarily, he was also answering their questions in a way that all of us who have come after the disciples can understand them as well. And in answering these questions of the disciples, we find in our text this morning that Jesus speaks to the last of the disciples' questions first, what will be the sign of the end of the age? When we look to the beginning of 24, they asked in verse three, tell us the three questions, when will these things be, speaking particularly of the destruction of the temple, which Jesus had just spoken of, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? Jesus, as we know, has already spoken to them in the previous verses, from verse 4 until verse 8, giving this broad idea of what is to come, and warning the disciples and us not to be led astray, not to be led astray by false teachings, not to be led astray by those who would turn us aside, and not to be alarmed when we see these things, because these are, as he called them, the birth pangs. But now in chapter 9 he begins to get, or in verse 9, he begins to get a little bit more specific. And in his answer we understand that what he speaks here in these few verses, many of these things have taken place already, but also will take place again. And we will see that as we go through it. That many of these things will take place for the disciples themselves after the ascension of Jesus Christ. But we also find clues that indicate these signs are for all Christians who follow that time period up to the point when Jesus himself returns. And so the first thing Jesus told them in verse nine was, this was one of the signs. that the world will hate the people of God, that the world will hate the disciples of Christ, and that they will deliver them up to tribulation and put them to death, that they will be hated by all nations for the sake of Jesus Christ. For the disciples, this was true. Most of the disciples were indeed delivered up to tribulation and put to death. Extant historical records Church tradition generally agree that all but the Apostle John were executed in some fashion, and that the Apostle John was exiled to the small island of Patmos and there died of old age, and yet he died in exile. And so what Jesus told them came true. They were delivered up to tribulation. They were delivered up to death. All those who heard his word as his disciples were in some fashion hated by the world, persecuted by the world, and executed. And since the apostolic record, taking the historical layer of prophecy and now moving it into the greater redemptive history of God. Since that apostolic period, we see this prophecy continuing to take place. That all nations have indeed hated the followers of Jesus Christ, even our own. We have seen it in our own day. Our government has at times and places persecuted our fellow believers for things that they have stood up for. The record of those throughout the ages that have been prisoned and tortured and executed for the cause of Christ is one we don't even know. The record of those who have been persecuted for the preaching of the gospel is long and detailed, and we have books such as the Fox's Book of Martyrs and others who record these, but the number of men and women who have died in service to Christ that have not been recorded, I would argue, is far, far greater than that. And as a matter of redemptive history, God's people have suffered exactly what Jesus predicted, as they have labored to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth, as they have gone forth and preached his name. Nations have hated them. They have been delivered up to trial and tribulation. They have been delivered up to death and to execution, and they will continue to be until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The second sign Jesus noted was that many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. Again, in the apostolic period and throughout history, we have seen those professed believers who, under the threat of torture or death, or perhaps the threat of imprisonment or livelihood being lost, have renounced the faith or have turned away from Christ and his church. The apostles speak of a few of these in their letters, those who once were faithful but turned away. When you read 1 John or 3 John, I believe it's Diotrephes that John brings up by name, there are those kinds that were part of the church and yet turned away for one reason or another. And history is replete with people who have confessed the cause of Christ and faith in Christ and yet have turned away. Perhaps the most well-known period in which this occurred was under the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian at the end of the third century. And at that time, as Diocletian leveled this intense persecution on the church and the Roman Empire, there were a number of elders and pastors and Christians who hemmed and hawed about their true beliefs in order to avoid being arrested and tortured and killed. And then when the persecution was lifted under the edicts of Constantine later, There was an argument, a Donatist controversy, if you care to look it up, in which the church struggled with how do you receive these who denied the faith in order to save their skin, but now they're coming back to the church. How is the church to deal with this? And it was something that they had to deal with pastorally and as believers. This is something that has happened throughout human history. The third sign Jesus pointed to was the many false prophets. Verse 11, many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. Again, we see this fulfilled before the destruction of the temple. Acts gives us a record of this happening during the times of the disciples. John and Peter wrote very specifically to the churches warning against this, against the false prophets who were rising in their midst. But we also have seen this to be true ever since. We've seen this to be true ever since the apostolic age, that there are many false prophets. Every age, it seems, brings about new heresies and aberrant teachings and a multitude of men and women who bastardize the word of God to use it for their own ends and to lead people astray. And I would argue in our own age it has become even more rampant with the advent of radio and television and the internet. Never has leading people astray been so easy. Before you had to have personal contact to lead people astray and now all you have to do is have some bandwidth and be able to get on the internet and you can lead millions and millions of people astray. And there are a multitude of those who do that very thing. for the love of money, for the love of fame, for pride, for whatever it may be. Many in our day have taken this path and have sought to lead the people of God astray. The next sign Jesus gives, verse 12, lawlessness will be increased. And because of that, the love of many will grow cold. As human culture spirals downward, what Paul spoke of in the first chapters of Romans. As human culture spirals downward and the laws of God are rejected and the influence of Christianity is ignored, lawlessness does indeed increase. This has been the pattern of the ages. Whenever Christian influence is dampened or removed from a society, often lawlessness increases exponentially. We see this in our own country, again. We have seen it in the past five to 10 years. Vandalism and assault and robbery and rape and murder, all of these things become daily news. All of these things that follow in a society that abandons the foundations of law. We've seen these things in cities. We have seen these things in states. And for all of those who want to remove all constraints, to remove all constraints is to descend into lawlessness. And in descending into lawlessness, the mindset of that is a love that has grown cold. In the midst of lawlessness and license and the unhampered ability to live out one's darkest desires without consequence, selfishness becomes the word of the day. It's all about what I want, what I can get, what I can do, how I feel. It's me, me, me, me, me, what I deserve, what I think. I'm all that matters in this world. And this is the way so many people think. And in thinking this way, this is not the way of love. This is not love for neighbor. This is not loving those around us. When my wants differ from your wants, then conflict arises. When my wants differ from your wants, then I'll just take what I want and do what I want. And that's where lawlessness begins to arise, as crimes are committed, as theft and robbery and rape and murder take place. And there is no love to temper these base impulses, the impulses of the dark human heart. Love. Love is that which allows us to consider others. Love is that which allows us to show empathy. Love is that which allows us to stop being self-serving. Love is that which allows us to help one another and seek the good of one another, even at our own expense. But in a culture of lawlessness, many people's love has gone cold. And sometimes even those who profess the love of Christ. And so we see the signs that Jesus gives, signs of the end that will be coming in AD 70 as the apostles see these things happen in their own day, signs of the final end, the end of the ages, the end of redemptive history. But while all of this taken together might seem a bit depressing, Jesus continued by offering encouragement and offering one final sign, a beacon of light in the darkness, a beacon of light in the darkness of unbelief and sin and persecution, that which will typify the time before his final coming. And so he gives us encouragement first. But the one who endures, verse 13, the one who endures to the end will be saved. All is not lost. All is not hopeless. There is still salvation to the one who endures. And then he gives that final sign. That the gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. While everything else is negative, everything else is the descent of lawlessness and hatred, and people are falling away, and people are turning people astray, and there are false prophets, the final sign is a sign of hope, that the gospel will go forth, that it will go forth to the ends of the earth, that it will go forth to every tribe and every tongue and every nation as Christ himself commissioned it to do. And so he gives us that final sign, the sign that does give us hope, the sign that reinforces our joy, that in the midst of all of these things, God is still working, and he is still working his purpose, and he is still working his power, and he is doing it through the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ, and he is and will do it through every nation on earth before the end. And in the midst of lawlessness and betrayal and persecution and false prophets, Jesus counseled his disciples and he counsels us and all of his people to endure, endure to the end. endure to the end of our own lives, endure to the end of the age, to endure to the end of whatever God has set before us, to not allow our love to grow cold with the love of those around us, to not join those in renouncing their faith, to not be among those who are led astray or lead people astray, to endure, to endure in the hope of the gospel that has been given to us. Yet given our weakness as fallen humanity, to endure in such a fashion is difficult. Indeed, it is impossible, we know, left to ourselves. We easily become distracted, we become jaded, we become unsympathetic. When things begin to happen, trial and tribulation and persecution and threat of harm, our self-preservation reflexes kick in. And we say whatever we think might help us avoid pain or might help keep us from suffering, and especially from death. But Jesus tells us we are to endure. We are to endure through these things. But we cannot do it on our own. We can only do so by the power of the gospel. The power of the final sign that Jesus gives is the only way that the church can endure through these things, is the only way that the church can persevere through the signs of the end. This gospel, the spread of the good news, the propagation of the faith to all of the nations in the midst of trial and tribulation, the gospel will go forth in the midst of persecution and execution. The gospel will go forth in the middle of hatred and betrayal, lawlessness. The gospel goes forth. in the midst of selfishness and love grown cold, the gospel of Jesus Christ will still continue to go forth to change the hearts of people from every tribe and tongue and nation. And this is part and parcel of our endurance, to both embrace the gospel with heart, mind, and soul, and then to speak the gospel and live the gospel before this present evil age. in the face of the signs spoken of by Jesus, even as we see them fulfilled in our own day. Ours is to ensure that our love does not grow cold by looking ever and always to the author of our love, by looking to the God who is love. Ours is to maintain fidelity to the truth of God's word, no matter what may come, that we might not be led astray by false teachers. Ours is to pray for our brothers and sisters who do suffer for the sake of Christ in ways we cannot imagine. Pray that they might stand firm to the end. Pray that they might endure in the face of what they are suffering. that they might be empowered by the same gospel that we rejoice in, that they might be empowered by the same gospel of Christ as the Holy Spirit comforts and strengthens them. And as we heed the words of our Lord, ours is to recognize these signs all around us, but not become alarmed, as Jesus has already said in verse six. rather anticipate his return, anticipate the end of the age, for it is only then that all of these things will come to an end. It is only then that there will be true and everlasting peace. It is only then when all of the martyrs of God will be avenged by their savior, as John tells us in Revelation. And it is only then that all who have endured will know that full and final salvation, will know the rest and the joy and the peace given to them by their gracious God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. And as we hear these things, and as we understand these things, as we look to the end times, as we look to the signs Jesus speaks of, may we not do so in fear, may we not do so in alarm, but may we take comfort. Not in what we think we have figured out in these signs and omens, not in what we think we have figured out in all of the things Jesus has told us, but may we take comfort in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone. May we take comfort in the power of his gospel to work the will of God in his people through all of these things that happen. May we take comfort. The God will always do what he says he will do, that he who began this good work in us will complete it to the very end. And we may not know when that end will be, and that's fine. He will complete it. He will do so. It is the power of his gospel that carries us forth step by step, day after day, until our end, be it our own death, be it the coming of our Savior, whatever it may be. It is God who works this in us, in the power of the gospel of his son. And may we never become so preoccupied with future things. May we never become so preoccupied with the signs of the end of the age that we take our eyes off of that which truly matters, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For it is only because of his death and resurrection that we have any hope of endurance. It is only because of his death and resurrection we have any hope of making it to the end. It is only because of the gospel of Jesus that we can endure, but it is the promise of the gospel that we will endure. because it is he who is working in us. And as the love of God in the gospel of his son has worked in us, we can look to our own love, how we love each other, how we love those around us, how we love this world, how we love those who seek to persecute us, who seek to harm us. That our love not grow cold, but show forth before all men in the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Loving God with all of our heart, mind, and soul as we are called to do, and loving all around as we love ourselves. To endure in this fashion is to know salvation. To endure in this fashion is to know salvation not only from sin and death, but it is also to know salvation unto that final blessed hope, that hope that the Apostle Paul says will never put us to shame. For as we endure through the midst of all of these things, we have hope. We have hope that all of this will come to an end. Jesus tells us the end will come. It will come and it will be glorious. for those who endure, for those who cling to the gospel, for those who look to Jesus Christ in faith, throughout all of these things, the end will come, and it will be glorious. And ours is to hope, to cling to that hope that does not put us to shame, that will not put us to shame, and to know that we will come to that end, and at that end, we will know rest, and we will know peace, and we will know relief, and we will know comfort, we will know everlasting joy. This our merciful Father has promised. This he will do by the power of his Holy Spirit in the hearts, minds, and souls of his people. This he will do because of Jesus Christ, he who is the author and perfecter of our faith. That as we live in endurance by the power of his gospel, we may do so to his honor and his glory, now and forever. Amen.