If you have a copy of the New Testament with you tonight, we're turning to the Gospel by Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. And I want to talk to you this evening on the subject, The Signs All Seem to Say. The Signs All Seem to Say. His coming is not far away. And we're reading from Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24, and we're reading at verse 1. If you go down through Matthew's Gospel, chapter 24, you'll discover that this chapter is very Jewish in its content. That's something you've always got to bear in mind. The Savior is talking here about the temple. He's talking about Jerusalem. He's talking about the abomination of desolation. And all of those things have a Jewish context. And we must never forget that. Verse 1 says, And Jesus went out and departed from the temple. And His disciples came 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? 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. And 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 nation 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. And then come back to Matthew's Gospel, please, and chapter 16. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 16, and reading at verse 1. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 1, the Pharisees, also with the Sadducees, came and, tempting, desired Him that He would show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather, for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather to-day, for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky, But can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall be no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. And they left him and departed. Lord, we bless Thee tonight that everything has been done. so that sinners can come. We thank Thee, Our Father, that the gospel invitation tonight has come. All things are now ready. We thank You for the Savior who paid the price, who died that death that we could never die, who satisfied the claims of a righteous throne, who opened up a way back to God, And we thank the Lord tonight that sinners can come to Christ. And our Father, we would long tonight that men and women in our meeting who know not the Lord Jesus, that tonight they would be brought by the Spirit of God to the place called Calvary. We think of some, our Father, this evening in this meeting. And if the Savior were to come before midnight, they would be left behind. left behind to endure the awful terrors of the tribulation period, left behind to believe the die that the Antichrist would impose upon them. God would send them strong delusion. Our Father, we long tonight, O God, we long this evening that everyone in this building would be taken up, caught up to meet the Lord in the air. And so, our Father, as we come to Thy Word just now, we need afresh the health and energizing ministry of God's Spirit. Father, we pray just now that Thou wilt help us. Lord, we're needing. We need Thee. O God, come tonight. Grant, our Father, that as the meeting progresses, there might be that intense sense of God in our midst. And Father, we pray that ere the lights go out in this building, there might be names written down in glory. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Back in 1843, a New Englander named William Miller came to ardently believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, he began to speculate about the date of the Lord's return using some dubious mathematical calculations. He collected mounds of data He analyzed it. He was certain that he had made no mistakes. He therefore confidently announced to his followers that on the 21st of March, 1843, the Lord Jesus would return to planet Earth. At midnight on that appointed day, His devoted followers donned their ascension robes. They trekked into the mountains. They climbed towering trees to get as high as they could so that they would have less distance to travel through the air when the Lord returned to catch them home. The day came and went. The Lord did not come. And those trees became awfully uncomfortable. But William Miller was not a man who gave up easily. He immediately went back to the Scriptures and discovered that he had mistook and made a mistake regarding his calculations. Why he had miscalculated by one year. So it was that 365 days later, the Millerites once again robed themselves, climbed trees, and awaited the return of Jesus Christ. Again they were disappointed. Our own generation has seen many important dates come and go. The fortieth anniversary of Israel's founding as a nation occurred in 1988. And that event seemed to spur a number of predictions about the imminent end of the world. Edgar Wiseman published a little book entitled, Eighty-Eight Reasons Why the Rapture Will Happen in 1988. His book created a furor of interest, sold 4.5 million copies in the United States alone, plus an unknown quantity of several foreign language editions. My friends, tonight that book is no longer on the shelves of any library. Why not? Because 1988 came and went, and the Lord Jesus Christ did not return. In 1999, a man appeared on the scene by the name of Montague Miller, who believed that he was God's final prophet on planet Earth. Miller further predicted that he was going to be killed on the streets of Jerusalem in 1999, after which the Messiah would come. According to some secular reports, Some of Miller's followers set up home in the city of Jerusalem, and they began to mastermind and precipitate an event by planning a confrontation with the Israeli police, in which Miller would be killed, and thus hasten the coming of the Lord. Israeli intelligence uncovered the plot. They arrested the followers, who were subsequently deported from Israel. All over the world, there is a heightened interest in prophecy. the attack on the United States of America on the 11th of September 2001, the Iraq war, the number of earthquakes, famines, etc. Even Hollywood has picked up the theme and produced a film called Comet, which deals with prophetical matters. A lot of crimes and crackpots have also cashed in on the heightened interest and made all sorts of predictions. But my friends, I am here to tell you tonight that deep setting is wrong. You recall the words of Jesus Christ, but of that day and hour knoweth no man. Not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. God's Word is the only source of true biblical prophecy, and Jesus Christ is the only central theme of all biblical prophecy. But still, the question begs asking, are there any signs that the Lord's coming is near? I believe there are certain things recorded in the Bible that will come to pass after the church has been raptured. I believe there are certain things in the Word of God that will take place after the church has been caught up to glory. But because coming events cast their shadows before, we believe that the rapture must precede these coming events. And therefore, we believe tonight that the rapture of the church must be very near. It's very interesting in Matthew chapter 16 that the Pharisees and the Sadducees sought a sign. The Lord Jesus replied by talking about signs. Like most of their contemporaries, they were weather-wise. And the Lord said to them, you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret, you cannot explain the signs of the times. They were looking for some outward sign from heaven. when they were surrounded by daily evidences that God's new age had dawned in Christ. When John the Baptist sent two of his men to ask whether the Lord Jesus was the Messiah or not, the Lord sent them back with this message. Go your way. Tell John what things ye have seen and heard. How that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. To the poor the gospel is preached. There was evidence enough, said Christ, These signs on earth would have to survice. The hour had not yet come that there would be a sign from heaven. That would not come until the end, as Christ told His disciples in the Olivet Discourse, immediately after the tribulation of those dead. shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give up, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the power of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven." My friends, Jesus Christ says, until that future day, no sign would be given except that of the prophet Jonah, the sign of resurrection. And so what is to be expected tonight between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory is not a sign from heaven, but signs on earth. Now, are there such signs? By a sign we simply mean an indication by which a coming event may be anticipated or recognized. We can tell that by signs in nature that spring is coming. We know that this kind of week that we have had and this past week that spring is certainly coming. And the Lord Jesus leads us to believe that we can tell by the signs on planet earth that His second coming is drawing near. Are there signs tonight that the coming of the Lord draweth near? And what are they? Well, I want to give you four signs tonight, very simply, in these closing moments of our service tonight, that seem to indicate to me that the Lord's coming is very near. The first sign is what I'm calling the moral sign. The moral sign. Our generation is described as the permissive society. We prefer to let people do what they want to do rather than to conform to old-fashioned standards. You remember that Noah lived in an age that was ripening fast for judgment. The Lord Jesus referred to the days of Noah as a blueprint for the days of his return. He said, but as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. My friends, that should invest the days of Noah with special interest for us tonight. Because those days are vividly described in Genesis 4, 5 and 6. And there are two things that mark the days of Noah that mark the day and age in which you and I live. The first thing that marked the day of Noah was this. There was the vice of that age. The vice of that age. God saw that the wickedness of man was greater than the earth. And that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It was a society that was marked by polygamy. There was a breakdown in the primeval law of marriage. Lambert, the arch-rebel, had introduced polygamy into society. Indeed, this was a society in which women were becoming increasingly prominent. There seems to have been that strong feminist movement in Canaanite society. Is it any different today? The feminist movements in our land are seeking to reverse the roles of husband and wife. Some years ago, there was a book published in France entitled Love Plus. It took France by storm. It was written by a professor, a woman, a wife of a prominent lawyer, and a mother of three children. Her theme was this. Is it natural to be a mother? Do you know what her conclusion was? She said this, the maternal instinct is a 200-year-old myth invented to subjugate women. Noah's day was a day that was marked by polygamy. Our day is a day that is marked by polygamy. Noah's day was a day that was marked by immorality. The thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. Not just life patterns, but thought patterns expressing itself in perverseness of the worst kind. Is it any different today? The doctrine of permissiveness is seen everywhere. Anything goes. Pornography. Shacking up together. Marriage breakdown. All of these things are sweeping our land tonight and reshaping moral value. It was not only a day that was marked by polygamy and immorality. It was a day that was marked by homosexuality. If not in the days of Noah, certainly in the days of Lot, which were also a blueprint for the last day. Is that not the age in which you and I live tonight? Do you ever think that Christians working in the registrar of marriages would be confronted by the choices that they're being forced to make today. Two men, two women, who want to have this civil partnership. Believers are left in a terrible position. Some years ago, the parishioners of the St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco voted to voted overwhelmingly to call a couple of lesbians as assistant pastors. Both were the graduates of the Lutheran Northwestern Seminary in Minnesota. But my dear friends, we don't even think about America that night. We think about the United Kingdom. I'm sure it's in our day too. Homosexuals who are in the ministry. Lesbians who are in the ministry. Oh, the sinfulness! and the shamefulness that marks this present day, the vice of that day. But let me apply it to your heart tonight. What about the vice and depravity and sinfulness in your heart? Wonder, dear friend, tonight, have you ever seen yourself as God sees you? Have you ever seen yourself as a guilty, lost, hell-deserving sinner? Have you ever seen that your sin has separated you from the Holy God and will take you right down into the caverns of the dam? When I think of Noah's day, I think not only of the vice of that day. I think of the violence of that day. The Bible says the earth was corrupt before God. The earth was filled with violence. And who can doubt tonight that anarchy and international terrorism is on the rise? One estimate is that there are as many as 140 terrorist groups who are active in the world today. It's unsafe to walk the streets of our cities late at night. It is reckoned that a murder is committed every 24 minutes. A woman is assaulted or raped every 7 minutes. A house is burgled every 10 seconds. Hope our alarm is working tonight. My friends, do we realize tonight that there are people who are helping police with their inquiries regarding Britain's biggest cash robbery, 53 million? The Lord Jesus says, as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. I want to talk to you tonight, my dear friends, and tell you that the moral sign indicates that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. There's a second sign very quickly. I'm calling it the military sign. The Lord Jesus stated that the end times would be marked by an era of great national convulsions. We read it tonight in Matthew 24. You 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 nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Some of you have read perhaps Tim LaHaye's books. Fictional stories on the second coming of Christ, but fictional stories with a tremendous punch. And Tim LaHaye says there have been approximately 15,000 wars in recorded human history, but the 20th century in particular has been far more bloodier than any that preceded. Far more people have died in wars during the past years, the past hundred years, than in all the centuries before. Christ said, Behold the fig tree. And all the trees, when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of yourselves that summer is nigh at hand." Is that reference to all the trees? Is that reference to all the trees budding? Is it not a reference to the shooting forth of new nations? Think of the new nations that have emerged from the former Soviet bloc. What about the nations that have come out of the Federation of Yugoslavia? We're living in an age that's marked by constant turmoil. The Lord Jesus said there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts peeling for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. He says the powers of heaven shall be shaken. While our Lord's statement refers to events just prior to His return in power and great glory, We can see that this situation already exists today. National leaders, their hearts are filled with fear and perplexity. They just stumble from one crisis to the next. They don't know at times which way to turn. It's a need that's marked by Like constant turmoil, it's an age that's marked by incessant talks. After World War I, the League of Nations was formed in order to preserve world peace. After World War II, the United Nations came into being with a determination on the part of many that there would be no more war. And yet world politicians tonight are engaging in shuttle diplomacy as they trip back and forward across the globe, hoping to resolve hostilities, discussing disarmament, the control of destructive weapons. Today it's the roadmap for peace. Tomorrow it's something else. And my friends, in spite of all this shuttle diplomacy, peace still eludes our world. Do you know what Paul says? When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them. My friends, there will be no lasting peace until the Prince comes. There will be no lasting peace until the Prince of Peace sets His feet on the Mount of Olives and Jesus shall reign for a thousand years until He reclaims the earth which is His. Incidentally, what about you personally tonight? Are you at peace with God? Have you come to trust Christ? Have you been declared righteous through faith in His precious blood? Do you know peace with God tonight? Oh, when I think about the signs of His coming, I think of the moral sign. When I think about the signs of His coming, I think of the military sign. When I think about the signs of His coming, I think of the merger sign. For the Bible tells us that a sign of the last days will be an effort to unite the religions of the world. I call this the merger sign. The apostle Paul gives us a clue about the timing of the day of the Lord. He says, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except the coming of falling away first. And falling away is from a Greek word from which we get the English word apostasy. It means to turn from the fear. Do you remember what Paul said to young Timothy, the young preacher boy? He said, The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devil. My friend, tonight what about the sign of universal apostasy, this falling away from the faith? In these last days there has been an undoubted departure from the truth. ministers, theological students denying the virgin birth of Christ, denying the deity of Christ, denying the atonement for sin at the place called Calvary, denying the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so on and so forth. And many of the great movements which in the past were true to the Word of God are now repudiating the authority of the Scripture and are teaching things that is contrary to this book. Do you remember old Ramsey? The Archbishop of Canterbury. All Rome loved him. They just loved old Ramsey. They thought he was a great man. I tell you, they didn't love the first Archbishop of Canterbury. He called Rome what the Bible calls it. Mystery Babylon. They burnt him. They embraced Ramsey. Do you know what old Ramsey said? He said, those who have lived a good life but found themselves unable to believe in God will not be debarred from heaven. I expect to meet some present day atheist there. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. But Ramsey refuses to believe the Savior. The sign of universal apostasy. The sign of a spiritual adultery. It's interesting that in the opening book of the New Testament, the Lord Jesus stated His firm intention to found only one church. However, in the closing book of the New Testament, we are confronted with a picture of two churches. One church at the commencement of Christian history. Two churches at the close of Christian history. You say, preacher, is it possible to identify that church? Yeah. John in the book of the Revelation refers to her like this, Mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Leckie, the historian, tells us in his Rationalism in Europe, he charged Romanism with being responsible for the deaths of more innocent people than any other institution in history. He reckoned that some 50 million were slain by the Roman Catholic Church. Now, I'm not against Roman Catholics tonight. I don't want you to go out and say that. But I want to tell you tonight, I'm against their doctrine. I'm against their doctrine. I'd love to see them saved. I've had the joy of pointing Roman Catholics to Christ. And we should have a burden for their souls. But, my dear friends, when a priest takes that bread and says that he turns it into the Body of Christ, and when he takes that wine and he says that he turns it into the Blood of Christ, I oppose strongly. spiritual adultery. The ecumenical movement hasn't gone away, friends. We need to be careful that we're not sucked in. God's Word stands unchanged. Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sin. If you belong, my friend, to a church tonight that favors a communism rather than faithfulness to the Word of God, I advise you to leave. The Bible challenges tonight. Can two walk together except they agree? You can tie two cat's tails together and get union, but I'll tell you this, you won't have unity. Listen, to the signs, the moral sign, the military sign, the merger sign, to the signs not all seem to say His coming is not far away. The last sign that I want to talk to you about is the miracle sign. That's the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel tonight is America. Dr. Appelman, Dr. Hyman Appelman, said on one occasion, if you want to know about the coming of the Lord Jesus, keep one eye on heaven and the other eye on the nation of Israel. You know that in the past the nation of Israel were ravaged? Speaking of the Jewish people, Jesus Christ said, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. In AD 70, Titus and his Roman legions marched into the city of Jerusalem. They destroyed it. They set the temple on fire. They exiled countless survivors to foreign lands. And for the next 1,900 years, the Jews were scattered throughout all the nations of the world. In fact, my dear friends, they were called the wandering Jews. The Jews were ravaged. But today the Jews are being restored. Jeremiah prophesied of this. He says, Lo, the day is come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. Ezekiel also confirmed, For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Have you ever heard of a people expelled from their land for two thousand years, and they're returning tonight, and they're reestablishing and have reestablished their sovereignty in the same territory? Have you ever heard about that? Out for 2,000 years and then coming back to claim the land that God has given to them in the book of Genesis. It has never happened to any other people except the Jewish people and it happened when the State of Israel was formed in the month of May 1948. Tonight Israel is set aside. But it's only until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And my friend, when the Lord Jesus adds the last brick to the building and the church is completed and the Lord comes to the air to take us home, at that time God will resume His dealings with the nation of Israel and the veil of blindness will be taken from their minds. And one day when He comes, After he has passed Israel through the refining fire of the tribulation, many of them will perish. But, O my dear friend, at the end of seven years he'll come. His feet will stand upon the Mount of Olives. They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they'll say, Blessed, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. the moral sign, the military sign, the merger sign, the miracle sign. The signs all seem to say, His coming is not far away. Rejoice, she seems. He may come today. He's bound to come. Man was invited by a friend to attend a performance of Handel's Messiah. He hardly knew who Handel was. And the loathsome man that invited him was an avid fan of Handel. This other fellow had never heard about Handel and never heard about the music. In fact, to tell you the truth, he knew very little about music. And he patiently sat and sat and sat, and he was bored out of his mind. Finally he turned to his friend and he says, how long does this thing go on? His friend turned to him and said, just a few more minutes. His friend looked at him and said, how do you know there's just a few more minutes? His partner said, I've read the script. I've read the script. My friend, tonight we have read the script. We have read the scripture. And the Lord Jesus said, when these things begin to come to pass, look up, lift up your heads. Your redemption draweth nigh. I'm glad I'm saved tonight, are you not? I'm glad I'm ready for that moment in the air. God's Word to you tonight is, Be ye also I wonder tonight, do you need to recognize that you're a sinner? Do you need to repent of your sin? And do you need to, by faith, embrace the Christ who's coming again? Will you take that step? Will you take it now? Let's pray together.