We're working our way through this great Gospel of Matthew. And we saw it's all about the King. And the Lord is the King that was sent by His Father. And we saw Him come on the scene, and we saw He was popular for a while, and they began to face opposition. And in the 21st chapter, when he wrote in in the triumphal entry, unfortunately, he could sense they were rejecting him. I think maybe he knew that from before he showed up. So the cup of suffering must come to him. And we saw that on Monday and Tuesday, he was pretty rough, kind of in rebukes and in reproofs and in warnings to let them know that what they were doing was ultimately going to hurt them. And he cursed the fig tree with a sign and he cleansed the temple, which is an act of his power. He silenced critics with questions and gave parables of the disobedient son and the wicked husbandmen and the people ignoring the marriage of the king's son. He silenced the Herodians. and the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And in the 23rd chapter last week we saw He excoriated and upbraided the Pharisees as He cursed the big religion that they had made in the Father's name and forgotten to show people how to have a personal relationship with God because God's desire is always to be a father to every soul, to be a father to the fatherless. He wants to have a relationship with people. And he cursed them. And in the 24th chapter, it says, and Jesus went out and departed from the temple. And then his disciples came to show him the buildings of the temple. Don't get all mad. Look, it's still a beautiful temple. And Jesus said, you seeing 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 then he sat upon the Mount of Olives. Now, if you've ever been to Israel, I haven't, but if you look at maps of it and you study it out, the temple would be, let's say, over here, where this hand is, and it's up in the air on Jerusalem's mount, and it's quite high up, maybe 2,700 feet above sea level. Then there's the Valley of Kidron, and then there's another mountain over here called the Mount of Olives. And that mountain is actually just a tiny bit higher, so you could sit up there and you could actually look at the temple, kind of looking down on it a little. And it was Jesus' custom to go to the Mount of Olives, where the olive trees were, and just kind of get in there and pray quietly. And He's up there, and the disciples, verse 3, they come to Him privately. which is a good lesson for us. If you're a disciple, you're going to come to the Lord privately. Now, here you're together publicly, and that's good. And disciples also do that. We come in public events too. And I love going to church. Last week, Brother Lou was preaching downtown. Monday, I was there. Preaching Tuesday, I was there. I mean, I enjoy being with God's people in the house of God when the Word of God is being ministered. Those are the houses that I go to, you know, places where they know the King James Bible is the Word of God and there are actual preachers that preach in that book. And I'm always blessed. And I come publicly. But I also come privately. I come to Jesus alone sometimes to ask questions. And look at the question they ask in private. Tell us, middle of verse 3, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? And he's about to give another major sermon to them that theologians call a discourse, which is a long teaching. I have them written here for you. And if you remember, just by way of review, the Lord gave three of the four discourses in the Gospel of Matthew. The fourth one he saved for John. And the three discourses, you remember, where the first one was the Sermon on the Mount, chapters five, six, and seven, where he showed the kingdom rules and how the kingdom will be ruled. And our king is gonna come back and he's gonna set up that kingdom one day, and those rules of the Sermon on the Mount are gonna be in order, and that's what we'll be following at that particular time. We also saw he gave that discourse in the 13th chapter called the mystery of parables Discourse with seven little parables. They're showing the various forms of the kingdom of heaven because The men tend to resist God's will and so he has to kind of In kindness, goodness, and condescending, He comes down and changes things for men a little bit within, you know, boundaries, but He does things. Okay, this didn't work. Let me try this with you. Okay, this didn't work. Let me try this with you. There are certain bounds He won't go without, but He'll try different ways to try and win people and work with them. And the Mystery Parables discourse showed the various forms of the kingdom. This is the final discourse He's going to give here, chapters 24 and 25. They call it the Olivet Discourse because he was on the Mount of Olives. So that's where it was given. The Sermon on the Mount was on another mount somewhere else in the Holy Land. I don't know where. It might have been not far from the Sea of Galilee. But here he's given this one here, and it's on the Mount of Olives. And it's not about the kingdom's rules or the kingdom's forms. It's about the kingdom's time, when the kingdom is going to come. Because that's what they're asking. When are you going to set this kingdom up? When's the end of the world? We want to know these things. Disciples like to know these things. I'll bet since you got saved, you've had some interest in those things. As a disciple, you want to know these things. A lost man couldn't give a rip. Ask them. They couldn't care. They don't believe there's a kingdom. They don't believe there's a God. They don't believe He's coming back. You tell those things, it's kind of like a mythology to them. It's like Zeus and Phoenix and Venus to Milo. I mean, they don't know. But we're interested. We'd like to know these things. We know our God is working. We know our God, although He's in eternity, He comes down to work in time and we'd like to know what the timing is. Now, one of the things we want to understand here is Matthew is to the Jews. So every single one of these discourses are written to the Jews regarding the kingdom of heaven upon earth in the land of Israel. Okay? This is not to the church. That's not to say we can't learn some lessons from it. There are spiritual lessons for us to learn, but this isn't written to the church, technically. The kingdom of heaven has an ordained king. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's chosen by God. He's going to set up a kingdom in Israel ruling on a throne in Jerusalem, David's throne, just like God promised, all through the 39 books before Matthew. This is the 40th book. This is all Jewish. I want you to understand this because there are people that read this particular account and they look at things like, there'll be two in the field, one taken and one left. That's the rapture. No, it's got nothing to do with the rapture. the rapture takes place before everything in chapter 24 and 25. Because 24 and 25, he's getting ready to set up his kingdom, and before he gets ready to set it up, he's got to take the church out. The church is gone. So that's not the rapture. You can get an inverted picture of the rapture out of it and maybe get some spiritual lesson out of it, but that's not the rapture. The rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4. It's 1 Corinthians 15. It's Revelation 4.1. It's a mystery to the Jews. Those books I just told you were written long after Jesus spoke to these Jews. They were the mysteries given to Paul about the church. The church is a mystery to the Jews. The Jews didn't know about it in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was written to Jews, for Jews, about Jews, to get ready for their Messiah. Here he comes in Matthew and the knuckleheads are rejecting him. And so now he's got to move that kingdom that he wanted to set up right there in 33 AD and push it back. And they can recognize, he just walked out of the temple. He just departed. This is not good. Something's going haywire here. Something's going wrong. What's going to happen now, Lord? Explain some things to us. The one discourse that is about the church, if you're interested, is in John's Gospel. It begins in chapter 13. It ends in chapter 17. It's called the Upper Room Discourse. It was when Jesus was gathered together with the eleven after Judas left. and the 11 disciples that were going to become New Testament, born-again Christians. And they were going to transition from Judaism to Christianity. And he gave that beautiful discourse about the church in those chapters. They're some of the most precious passages in all the Bible. And any Christian should spend some time in them and go over them. He's so cute. She's smiling. She likes this. She enjoys the teaching of the Word of God. Good girl. Yes. And so, yeah, it's the Upper Room Discourse. That's a good place for you to read, because you're learning to read. You'd enjoy that. The Psalms and the Upper Room Discourse. I often say to people, if you want to know which Bible is God's and you're an English-speaking person, read the Psalms and read the Upper Room Discourse in the King James Bible for one or two weeks. And then when it's all done, go back to whatever version you were given and try it there and see if God doesn't show you which book is His. And He'll show you which book is His. You will know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, God wrote the King James Bible. You'll know from the Upper Room Discourse and the Psalms. Good experiment. It's a great way to know which Bible is the Lord's. But here we're talking about Jewish things. So I want you to understand that. And we're going to delve into this. Verse 1, Jesus departed and went out. He departed from the temple. Now, this is something that the Father had done centuries ago in the book of Ezekiel. You read the book of Ezekiel, and most of the time, what is he talking about? What are these things coming down from heaven, whirling around? And there's a crystal stone, and there's a voice above the stone, and there's a wheel upon a wheel, and I don't know what he's talking about. And when you get into that one day when we study it, we'll find out that what was actually happening there was that God the Father said to some of the cherubims and seraphims, there's some trouble down in the Holy Land. I want to go firsthand and see. So I want you to carry my throne down to planet Earth so I can get a close look. And so they break off a piece of the crystal sea, the throne's on top of it, and they're carrying it just the way they used to carry kings long ago. And you'd have the big muscle guys, and they're up there riding on their throne. And God is coming down with His cherubims, and He's surveying the whole site in Jerusalem to see exactly what is going on. He's heard some prayers from His people. He wants to know if this is what's going on. Chapter 11. of Ezekiel. And after about 10 chapters of looking around, moreover, the Spirit, verse 1, lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Lord's house, the eastern gate of the temple, which looketh eastward. And behold, at the door of the gate there were five and twenty men, among whom I saw Jazaniah the son of Azor, and Nepeletiah the son of Benaniah. They were the princes of the people. And then said he, the Lord, to me, Son of man, these are the men that devise mischief and give wicked counsel in this city." And what is going to happen is they've gone so far for so long, verse 22, and then did the cherubims lift up their wings and the wheels beside them, and the glory of God, of Israel, was over above them, and the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood upon the mountain on the east side of the city. You know what mountain that is? That's the Mount of Olives. He did the same thing his son did. He left the temple and moved next door to the Mount of Olives. And then what you're going to find out is he's going to depart and go back to heaven. And God just left the Temple of Solomon. The glory of God departed, and that thing was empty. And let me tell you something. When God departs a temple, Our God departs a church. Our God departs a nation. Our God departs an individual. It's headed for destruction. It's just that simple. It's deterioration and destruction. There is no alternative. God is the giver of blessings. God is the giver of life. God is the giver of edification and building up. And when God leaves, game's over. And God the Father just departed Solomon's temple and that thing fell. And here God the Son just departed the second temple, Zerubbabel's temple. And you know what? That thing's going down. Now the disciples are a little confused. The disciples are still holding out hope. And Jesus has got to edify and build them up. Give up that false hope. There is no false hope. I've departed. It's over. I've told you people, God is done with America. I'm sorry, I appreciate all of you reading your conspiracy things on the right wing things and hoping about it. God gave up on it, and for good reason. They threw out his book in 1901. They started ripping up the Constitution with the 14th Amendment and abortion in 1973. And they overthrew the Constitution in 2020 and 2021 when they took the last vestiges of a republic and overthrew a presidential election. And God said, well, that's it. There's nothing left here that's good. My book is gone, and a book that was written based on my book is being ignored. It's twice dead, plucked up by the roots. I don't like having to say that. I hope the other guys are right. I don't think so. God's departed. There's still a few saved people left. Good for us. But there's no hope for this nation. This nation will join all other nations against Israel in battle in the next seven years, and God will come back and wipe this nation out. That's Bible. But back to where we are here. This is the Lord departed. God won't bless America. America hasn't blessed God. How many people are in church this morning? How many people are in church this morning? Where's America's church attendance? Where's America's Bible reading? Where's America's prayer? The blessings are based on the Word of God and a bowed knee in prayer. Nothing left to bless here. Goodbye. Back to here. Now he's leaving Israel. And the Lord and Jesus departed and went out. And the disciples scurrying around here, and Jesus tells them, you see these things? There shall not be left here not one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down. Not one stone. Now let me tell you something. They built that temple with some pretty impressive stones. I went back and looked in the Bible. Just want to show you some things. Do you mind if we take time going through this chapter? Do you mind a few weeks going through this chapter rather than hurrying through? Okay. Go to the book of Ezra. After Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, there's Ezra. If you get to Esther, you went too far. It's a couple books before Esther. Ezra 5. Now here they are building the very temple that Jesus just departed from. Ezra 5. And they're writing a letter to the king. In verse 1, you'll see the prophets Haggai and the prophet Zechariah prophesied unto the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel. That's the only way to prophesy, in the name of the Lord. You pray in the name of the Lord, you prophesy in the name of the Lord. So the glory goes to the Lord, not to the prophet. And when they prophesied, then rose up Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, and Yeshua, the son of Jazadech, and began to build the house of God. You know, you want to build a church, you need somebody to prophesy. You need some prophecy, it'll stir some people up. You know what they'll do? They'll stir up, they'll get up, and they'll get building. And that's how God works. He hasn't changed the way He's worked. He's not going to change. I'm the Lord. I change not. I take My Word. I minister My Word. My people get stirred up and things get done. Somebody doesn't minister My Word, they don't get stirred up, they just sit around and eat potato chips and watch TV. I need a prophet to stir them up. Boys, you're going to study My Word? Study My Word. Show thyself approved. Give it out. Preach the Word. People get stirred up. And they started building. And then someone watched the building that was going on, and they wrote a letter to King Darius, end of verse 7, unto King Darius, the king be peace. Verse 8, be it known unto the king, we went to the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, the only God, the greatest God, the great God, not the greatest, he's the only God. He's the great God, which is builded with great stones. Fantastic stones. You want to get an idea how big they were? Go to 1 Kings 7. Well, how did those people build the pyramids is the question that's asked. Well, let's look at 1 Kings 7. They didn't have cranes like we have today, and they didn't have automated power tools. How could they build a pyramid? 1 Kings 7. Bible answer the question for you. And here they are, verse 1, Solomon was building his own house 13 years and that kind of stuff, but he's also building at the same time his house and the temple, and he's building them near one to another, so he has access to the temple. And where they're building, it says in the temple, verse 9, these were of costly stones, according to the measure of yewed stones with saws, within and without, even from the foundation of the coping, and so on the outside toward the great court. And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of 10 cubits and stones of 8 cubits." What is that? 10 cubits is 15 feet. And 8 cubits is 12 feet. So let's just take a look. 15 feet. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So that would be there. And then one, two, three, four. Let's say we take up the first three pews. Imagine a stone that big. That was the size of stones they were working with to build that temple. How'd they do it? I don't know. They were bright. They used probably levers. They were bigger and stronger than we are. We're all broken down from watching TV and the inactivity that we have. And these were men that actually worked every single day and ate a Levitical diet. And so they were much stronger than we are. And they built it. So yes, man, here's the sad truth. Man was his greatest in the garden. And every year, the gene pool has corrupted. And every generation, a hundred new mutations is added. And by the way, in case you want to know, every time your body makes a new cell, it has one single nucleotide variant mutation in every new cell. God has programmed you to die. Like it or not, the wages of sin is death. You're going to die. And so every time your cells reproduce, a new mutation is in there, a new mutation. And it gets to the very end, and you look like you look in the mirror and go, what happened? Got a bunch of mutant cells that are all dying, and you're going to die. and you'll die of natural causes. And God has done it for the human race too. And the geneticists, we were talking about it yesterday at the party, the geneticists found out in 2008, man must die in 15,000, not 15,000 from now, from the start of a pure genetic code, by 15,000 years, there's enough damage in the code that man can't reproduce and they'll be dying. Man's going extinct. programmed extinction. So my point is this, we were at our best and our brightest and our strongest in the garden, and we've got dumber every generation and weaker. That's why we need smartphones, because we can't do anything. Back then they were as smart as the phone. Anyways. Oh, don't you love truth? Costly stones. Big stones. And Jesus said, there won't be one left on top of another. Now let me tell you the real thing. I mean, that's historical. That's physical. That's actual. That's real. But there's a spiritual building in Psalm 127. And here's what He said, except the Lord build the house. You are a house of worship. You are a temple of the Lord. And the Lord wants to build a costly stone inside of you to make you part of His temple. And except the Lord build it, you're laboring in vain. And if the Lord's not there, your stone's just gonna deteriorate and turn into powder and onto dust you'll return. And so spiritually. But back to where we are, we see historically they used great stones. We see there's a spiritual application. But doctrinally, Jesus is saying there's not going to be one stone left on the other. He's talking about the near-term destruction of that very temple He just walked out of. Just like Solomon's was destroyed when his father left, this one's going to be destroyed when he walked out of it. And in 70 A.D. it was destroyed. Completely destroyed. Now, any of you paying attention say, well, wait a second, wait a second. What about the wailing wall? Hasn't anybody seen pictures of the Jews over there praying at the wailing wall? I remember there was a reporter from the New York Times that went to do a piece on Israel, and she noticed every morning this one old Jewish man would go up and he would pray at the wailing wall in the morning, and then he would pray in the afternoon. So she went to interview him. She said, I've been watching you do this. You've done this about four days in a row. What do you do at that wall? He says, well, you know, I pray for the peace of my people. I pray that we'd stop fighting. I pray for all these things. she said well how's it worked out he says like talking to a wall and but but anyway but they pray at that wall and they've been taught that those are the remains of the temple but actually they're not And we had the guy on the program, John, Bob Cornuke, the archaeologist from the, what's the name of the thing, Bible Archaeology Search and Exploration Institute, and he's the founder of it. He's a good man, he's an ex-military man, he's got a PhD, and he went over there, and he noticed Jesus said there won't be one stone left, so is that possibly it? And it turns out, which I'm not surprised, that the stones of the Wailing Wall, they're not the remains of the temple. Rather, they're from a fort, the Roman Fort Antonia, that was made for Mark Antony. It was made in the name of Mark Antony, and it had the centurions there, and it had the Roman guards there, and it was on a 36-acre site. It was a first-century garrison that housed all those Romans that kept order in Jerusalem, and they ruled the city. The present temple mount, which is right nearby, the wailing wall is right next to it, is the remains of that. They built the Dome of the Rock. You know, the Muslims built that thing over there. I can't remember the name of it, but the Dome of the Rock. It's not really where Jesus was. That's not the temple site. It's a military site, which I think is ideal for a Muslim temple. Because they rule by might and the sword and by AK-47s. They don't rule by a word and they don't rule by peace. So it's a good place for them. The present Temple Mount, that's what that is. It's an ex-military site. The real Temple Mount, as he found, If this would be the Temple Mount they have here, you've got to go south, and you've got to go west about 200 yards, and the real Temple Mount is on a small 12-acre site that contains the Gaihan Spring and the Pool of Siloam. which makes sense. With all those bloody sacrifices, God provided water to cleanse all the blood because the water cleanses our filthy blood which is red as scarlet. And the water of the Word and the water of Christ cleanses it. And so that's the real temple site. Most tourist sites in Jerusalem are based on tradition, not on truth. That's why I really have no interest in going I don't particularly like being lied to. I'm waiting for the real tour guide to take me. In about 12 years, that's the Lord Jesus Christ where I'll get the truth. What good is tradition? Well, we saw Jesus abraded a number of times in the Bible. Mark 7, verse 13, you make the Word of God of none effect through your tradition. So you make Jesus look like a liar. Well, there's still stones there. There's not one single stone of that temple left. That 12-acre site's completely cleared. By the way, you know what's interesting? Like Bob was trying to do, and he is attempting, Bob has spoken with ABC. National Geographic, CNN, Fox, he's talked to people at the FBI, he's talked to people, he's gone to the UN. What he's tried to do, and I understand what he's trying to do, he's saying, look, if I can show the people that the real temple site is to the south, the Jews can build their temple without starting a war and having to take the dome off the rock. And I said, and that's a nice idea, but they're not going to listen to you. Because the world prefers lies and prefers tradition to truth. And they're going to go to war over that mosque. And the Antichrist is going to beat up the Muslims. And he is going to take that mosque over. And he's going to set up a temple on the wrong site, which again will be destroyed by the Lord himself when he comes back and builds the right temple on the right site. Yeah, it'll be a counterfeit. You got a counterfeit Christ, the Antichrist, you may as well have a counterfeit temple. About as real as the Muslim one. So back to where we are. Back to where we are in Matthew 24. He sat upon the Mount of Olives. The disciples came privately. Verse 3, tell us, when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? The end of the world. The disciples knew. that this world wasn't a good world. They knew that this world was being run by the Gentiles and the heathen. And they know that the Gentiles and the heathen know not God. They've rejected the knowledge of God. And therefore, this world has to end. And all through the Old Testament, there are promises that God's going to put an end to this world system. But what you need to know, and I want to help you, is have some verses. I put them there for you. Galatians 1, verse 4. By the way, I didn't catch this the other night, Luann, when you asked that question, but it partially answers your question. We were talking about the formation of the world and this present evil world, and the Lord showed me when I got home. We looked at Genesis chapter four. And Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and we looked at chapter four. And it starts with a G. And God said, what other book in the Bible starts with a G? Galatians. And since Genesis is the first book, go to Galatians 1. And since we were in the fourth chapter, go to verse 4. And there's what Genesis 4 is describing. This present evil world. Right there in verse 4. And Genesis 4 defines and describes how this present evil world started with the descendants of Cain and all the things they did, like starting agriculture industry, and starting big city industry, and starting the music industry, and starting the weapons industry, and all the things this world loves. and it's this present evil world. Jesus Christ, verse 3, our Lord Jesus Christ, He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil world. He's not trying to fix this world. He's not trying to make it a better world. He doesn't need hashtag world changers to come in and change the world. He's not asking you to do any of that stuff. He's asking you to deliver people out of this world because He's going to destroy it. And He doesn't want them left behind for when He does destroy it. I mean, the church for a hundred years has gotten into a foolish, stupid, social gospel where we can make the world a better place. It's an evil world. God's going to destroy it. The church is an arc of safety. It's like a boat floating in the polluted waters of a world in a stream God's going to destroy. He doesn't want you to clean the stream up. He wants you to pull people out of it, get them in the boat. He's going to lift the boat off and He's going to destroy the thing. I don't know why pastors are missing this point for a hundred years. Let me go on, Social Justice Warriors, he calls them. Go to 1 John 2. This present evil world. There's nothing good about this world. I'm sorry. Well, what about your top athletes that win the Stanley Cup? No one's going to remember them. Their names aren't written in the book of life. That's folly. By the way, and the Academy Award winners, just to be honest with you, just to be honest with you, in a real society, the most worthless people are athletes and actors. Seriously. Seriously. I mean, you need a house? I need a carpenter. I mean, you got a sick kid? I need a doctor. I want to teach somebody something? I need a teacher. I don't need an actor to get up there, and I'm not really a doctor, but I play one. That doesn't do me any good. I'm not really a carpenter, but I pretend on TV. That's no good. That doesn't help me. And what about you guys? Well, we still play little games like boys do. Yeah, well, I played football when I was a little boy. Then I grew up and got a job. I'm sorry that this world is so upside down and backwards, but actors and athletes should be, even if permitted, minimum wage. I say give them less than minimum wage. Look, that's all you're getting until you get a real job. As long as you're going to continue playing around, we're not paying you. This world is upside down, backwards, and nuts. You won't see this stuff when the Lord comes back, I assure you. this present evil world. I'm not angry with them. Look, it's not their fault. They don't know any better. They grew up in this world. I recommend they get saved and start reading the Bible. Maybe they can lead some other actors and athletes to salvation. Do something worthwhile with your life. I want to be the goat, the greatest of all time. Jesus is going to separate the sheep from the goats in the next chapter. You don't want to be the goat. 1st John chapter 2. Bible straightened things out. I wonder if Joel Osteen has this much fun. When will be the end of this world, this present evil world? 1 John 2, verse 15. Commandment from God the Father through the Holy Ghost written to you by the Apostle John. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, that's the eyes, the body. The lust of the eyes, that's the soul, sees all that stuff and then, I want that, I want that. The pride of life, that's the spirit of a man. It's not of the Father, it's of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of the Father, he abideth forever. And connected right next to that verse is the Antichrist. Because He's going to take over this world, this present evil world. And little children, it's the last time you've heard that Antichrist shall come. Even now there's many Antichrists. The spirit of Antichrist. And the spirit of Antichrist, they love the world. And they love the flesh. And they love the pride of life. And they love the lust of the eyes. That verse over there doesn't say God loves the world. It said God so loved 2,000 years ago that He gave His Son And that's the offering that He has for sinners to get saved. And His love is found 2,000 years ago at Calvary's cross. It's not here today for the world. He's not loving this world. He's getting irritated by this world. He's going to destroy this world real soon. Go back to, on your way back to where we were, stop at James for a minute, James 4.4. When's it going to be the end of the world? Because I have a feeling, Lord, You and Your Father don't like the world. We're not crazy about it. My Son just came into the world and they knew Him not. And He created it. He created the planet. He gave them life. James 4.4, Ye adulterers and adulteresses. There's a good way to open a nice banquet. Have me as a speaker. He said, ladies and gentlemen, the Bible's something, isn't it? Now you know why people hate this book. Because it tells the truth. He adulterers and adulterers, says David, use that in Albany. Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Now, you've got this present evil world, that's true, but God wants to set up a better world. And His Son spoke about it. A world that's based on truth and righteousness and joy and holiness and service and love of God and love of fellow man. That's what He's coming back to set up. That's what they're asking about. When are you going to set that world up? Because this one's a mess. He talks about it in Luke 18. And Peter was listening to Jesus explain to the young ruler that wanted eternal life. And Jesus basically said, look, you've got to follow me. You've got to put everything behind you and follow me. And the young man wouldn't do it. The Lord said in verse 24, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. He's putting all his trust in his material wealth and he's not trusting in the Lord. And then they heard it and they said, well, who can be saved? And he said, look, these things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Give God enough time to work on a heart and He might be able to convert it. But Peter then says, Hey, we've left all and followed thee. And he said, Look, verily I say to you, there's no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come. There it is. That's the one he's going to set up. And this present world's evil, but Jesus is planning to set up a beautiful world, one that you're going to want to be a part of, one where there's going to be the fellowship and the joy and the love that comes from the Spirit of the living God as it flows. You want to know the answer. What are these things going to be? What's going to be the sign of my coming? You want to know when I'm going to end this present evil world. Verse 4, now he's going to get into the meat of the Olivet Discourse. And he begins to answer this question. It's going to take him a while, and there's a lot that he has to give, and there's a lot for you and for me to read and reread and study. And by the way, it's all extra credit. You don't need to know. Because frankly, everything he's going to say, we're going to be gone when this happens. Because this is going to be known as the time of tribulation. And we're not going to be here for the tribulation. We're going up first. And we're going to look next week. I have a couple other charts I want to give to you, and we're going to take a look at this one here, which is going to show the first half, the midpoint, and the last half, and then the return of the Lord, and we're talking tribulation, and we're going to see how it's spoken of in Daniel. and in Matthew and in Revelation and how they all line up perfectly. And the Lord very carefully took a few verses in Daniel, opened it up into two chapters here, and then it opened it up into 13 chapters and kind of grew a tree of the knowledge of the Lord's return from Daniel through Matthew through Revelation. We'll look at that next week with all the various references we have. But we're looking at one of the major foundations of the faith here. And this is another sheet we have. This is a study we did back in 2005 on the foundations of the faith. And basically, for you to know whether you're Jew or Gentile, the foundation, the chief cornerstone of your faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. Other foundation can no man lay. But upon that foundation, He's built seven pillars. And the first pillar is the redemption of your soul. And He paid the price for your sins. And when you receive the payment for that price, the next thing He does is regenerates your spirit. And He gives you a new spirit that for the first time can begin to understand the Bible and see spiritual truth which you never saw before as you walked in a haze of darkness and a mist of confusion. And we all did until we got that new birth and the redemption of our soul. And then the third foundation of the faith is the promised resurrection of the body. and this corrupting, breaking down body with the arthritis and all the problems, we'll get a brand new one that's 33 years old like the resurrected Christ with no sin and no sickness and no sorrow that will last for eternity like the picture of Dorian Gray. We're going to have this body that is the same forever. Which, by the way, I'm going to like because I've got to tell you something. There are a few TV programs I've liked down through the years. You know, in a human sense, you know, I like the old Dick Van Dyke show. And then you see it and they started in 1960 and they finish in 66 and they were a lot older looking in 66. And I liked that first season. And then, you know, I watched a couple of Blue Bloods and started out good and now they're all in their rocking chairs and it's just not the same. It's tough to chase people with a cane as Danny's getting old. And I'm thinking, yeah, that first season was good. Isn't it nice when people don't age anymore? That's what we're going to get, a body that doesn't age anymore. We're going to look the same. The resurrection of the body, the third foundation of the faith. And then the fourth foundation is the reward of the servants and the saints. And God's got rewards for His children, Jew and Christian. And the return of the Lord is the fifth foundation of the faith. Now, when we did this series a long time ago, we were able to do just about every one in a single week, but the return of the Lord took five weeks of teaching. And you don't need to know it. It's extra credit. So don't worry if... Maybe we shouldn't even study these two chapters. No, we'll study them. We'll study them. And the last two, just in case you want to know foundations, are the recompense of God's enemies. And He's going to get rid of them once and for all and put them in a lake of fire. And then the recreation of all things with a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And there's no more dark skies at night. There's going to be light 24 hours a day and it's going to be beautiful because God is light and He's going to shine everywhere in His universe when He makes the new one. But back to where we are here. The first thing regarding this period, verse 4, Jesus answered and said, take heed that no man deceive you. Be not deceived. That's one of the biggest problems God's children have is deception. Now, I would say, again, I'm going to get to it. You know what I'm going to say. The biggest deception is which book is God's. If you don't know which book is God's, you're going to be deceived. Those other books weren't written by God, so there's deception in them. There's error in them. You will get confused. The first Bible I had, I was convinced there was a mid-trib rapture because I was reading that Bible. It wasn't until God gave me this book and I read it and I said, oh, of course, the rapture is pre-trib. So you can get deceived reading the wrong book. You need God's book. You need the right book. You also have to worry about not just the book. Verse 5, many shall come in My name saying, I'm a Christian, and shall deceive many. Now at the time of the trib, there's actually going to be people claiming to be the Messiah. Remember, the Jews rejected their Messiah in Matthew. and they've continued to reject him for 2,000 years. So, so often we'll go to pass a tract to a Jewish person, they'll go, I'm a Jew, I'm still waiting for the Messiah. And at that point, people are going to be jumping forward like on that old TV show. What was that show? Tell the Truth? Who's the real so-and-so? I'm so-and-so. I'm so-and-so. And I'm so-and-so. Well, the real so-and-so. They're all going to be doing that. Apparently, from what we read in the book of Revelation, there's going to be four men that are going to step forward and claim to be the Messiah. And really, they're vying for Antichrist's position. And then what's going to happen is the supremist Antichrist is going to take the other three out and they're going to be dead. And he'll be the one left. And then he's going to end up being the Antichrist. But there's going to be many, and the deception is going to be telling the Jewish people we're the Messiah. No, they're not. Go to 2 Thessalonians 2. Be not deceived. Now, we're not going to be here. So, you know what's going to be happening? Jewish people at that time are going to be reading Matthew. When we're gone, the book is still going to be behind. God's going to leave a faithful witness. God promised to preserve this book to a thousand generations. They're going to have the opportunity to read it. 2 Thessalonians 2. Okay. Let no man deceive you by any means. Deception is a big problem. Verse 3. Deception is a big problem. And men will deceive you about themselves, they'll deceive you about God, they'll deceive you about religion, they'll deceive you about end time events. For that day, what day? The one at the end of verse 2, the day of Christ. Which is the day of Christ? The day of Christ is the final day he comes back on clouds of glory to take over the planet. That's the day of Christ. And we'll see this when we study Matthew 24 and 25. That's the day of Christ. And that day, when He comes back on the clouds of glory, shall not come except there be a falling away first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. And then the real Antichrist is going to step forward before Christ comes back. And there's going to be a falling away, and we're going to study that. The falling away is The Jews are going to fall away from the steadfastness of the separation covenant that God gave them back in the book of Numbers and in the book of Deuteronomy. And He said you are never to join yourself with a heathen nation. And they're going to fall away, and we'll read about this as we go on, and they're going to sign the Antichrist covenant, and sign a covenant with a man who is a Gentile, probably 75% German, a lot of European blood in him, mostly German, and a little bit of Jewish blood in him, and they're going to sign that covenant with him, and we'll read about it in Daniel chapter 9. And that's the problem that's going to happen. Go, for example, what we saw before, 1 John 2, verse 18, the Antichrist. He calls that Antichrist. And he's going to come. And they're going to be deceived. And they're going to think he's the Messiah. Now the reason they're going to think he's the Messiah from a Jewish standpoint, don't think like a Christian, think like a Jew. What is the great Empty spot in the Jewish life right now. They don't have a temple and a place to sacrifice. So everything they do is, you know, they just sit around and read the book, but they were a nation given the Mosaic Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices that they were supposed to do, and they're to honor the Sabbath? How can you honor the Sabbath? They don't even have a temple to go to. And so the desire of the Jew is to rebuild the temple. And the Antichrist is going to allow them to rebuild the temple. He's going to go at war with the Muslims, he's going to take the Muslims out, and they're going to shake hands with him and sign the covenant and rebuild the temple. And that's that Antichrist that's going to come. And we read about him in Revelation 6, verses 1 and 2. And here's the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's being directed by His Father in heaven, chapters 4 and 5. And the Father is saying to Him, He handed Him the book, in chapters 4 and 5. And the book is the title deed to planet Earth. And the book is sealed with seven seals, and Jesus has to open the seals so that He can look within the book probably also in the book is maybe the names of the people written in the book of life and he's going through this and getting the title deed to earth and verse 1 the lamb opens one of the seals and I heard the noise of thunder and one of the four beasts had come and see and behold a white horse And he that sat on him had a bow. Now, white is often the horse they would ride in a victory. So I've won a victory. I'm establishing the peace. And a crown was given to him, and he went forth conquering, and to conquer the enemies of the Jews. He's going to come in peaceably to the Jews. He's going to come in war to the enemy of the Jews. So simultaneously, it's peace and war. And he's going to go after the Jews and enemies, go to the 13th chapter of Revelation. And this is the Antichrist. And don't be deceived, Jesus is trying to say. And he's writing these things in the book so that when it happens, they can read the book and they can know. And if they don't know, it's their fault, because God did not leave them to be ignorant. He left the book for them. You know why people get in trouble? They ignore this book. And that's a form of ignorance. God does not want you to ignore His words. He wants you to hearken to His words. And what's going to happen in the 13th chapter here of Revelation, we see v. 2, the beast which I saw was like a leopard. His feet were as the feet of a bear. His mouth as the mouth of a lion. These are things that fight and devour prey in war and he's going after his enemies. the enemies of the jew and the dragon that's the devil from the chapter um 12 verse 9 the great dragon is the devil and satan and the dragon gave him his power and his seat and his great authority they're setting up the anti-god trinity on the planet anti-god is the devil Anti-Jesus is the Antichrist. Anti-Holy Ghost is the false prophet. And they're setting up a counterfeit trinity on the planet, and the devil's giving the power to this man, the Antichrist. Verse 3, I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed, and the world wondered after the beast. And God's going to allow this Antichrist to be killed, and He's going to allow him to have a false resurrection and to stand up again. And when he stands up, verse 4, they worship the dragon which gave power to the beast, and they worship the beast. They said, who's like the beast? What kind of guy is this that dies and comes back to life again? Who's able to make war with him? You kill him, the guy comes back to life. There's nothing we can do. He's like the walking dead. He's like a zombie. We can't do anything to this guy. Now, it's a false resurrection and God's setting it up. And we've done these studies in the First Bible Church of East Aurora. You can go to the site and hear them. And that's the Antichrist. If you want, I'll go into all this stuff with you. I don't know that it's necessary. But that's what's going on. First, take heed that no man deceive you. Now listen, we're not going to live in that time, but what about right now? Take heed that no man deceive you. You know what a man should tell you? Number one, Jesus is the Savior. And there's no other way. And there's only one Gospel. And there's only one God. And there's only one faith. And faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. So there's only one Bible. And ask any of them who are in pulpits which that Bible is, and they can't give the answer because they don't know. But God showed me. You know what it is? It's the King James Bible. So don't be deceived by reading the wrong Bible. Get God's Book or you will be deceived even if you're saved. Saved people are easily deceived. I talk to them all the time. Let me tell you something about this because we're just about out of time. I saw an old movie a while back. Sometimes an illustration will come out of a movie. There was a plane that crashed. Jimmy Stewart was the pilot, whatever. And these guys were trapped and they were far, far away from supplies. And I think they had to go 150 miles in one direction, but only 100 miles in this direction. And one of the British guys said, look, I'm going to do some reconnaissance and go that way. And Jimmy said, well, how are you going to do it? He said, well, because you'll get lost. We're in strange territory. He said, I got a compass. I'm going to use my compass. And Jimmy said, well, that's a great idea. He said, but when I was mapping out the plane flight to get here, there are some mountains. We've got to go 100 miles that way, about 30 miles up. There are some mountains in that area that are very magnetic with iron, and they'll throw your compass off. Now, I just want to tell you something. What we're going to study the next few weeks in Matthew 24, 25, you need a spiritual compass to get this. And I want to tell you, I want to tell you what throws your compass off, the mountains of media. And I know pastors, and I know evangelists, and they still got their cell phones, and they're on the media all the time. They don't mean to be, but they are. And they watch, and they listen, and they throw a compass off. Now, I gave up on the media a long time ago. I believe nothing they say. They are the enemies of God. I won't even allow a media commercial out of my house. I'll fly across the room and turn it off. I won't even watch the weather. I want nothing to do with those guys. They're professional liars. I don't want anything affecting my compass but this book. and those little magnetic mountains will throw your compass off. And I had some kid come last week here and trying to give me interpretation of Ezekiel out of a newspaper, and I was like, son, you've got no concept what you're talking about. That Ezekiel passage doesn't even apply now. It applied back, you know, before the destruction of the temple, and it will apply in the Trib, but that's what happens when you're trying to read a Bible through a newspaper. A lot of confusion occurs. Your compass gets thrown off. So I don't want to carry a cell phone. I don't like any news. I like this book. That's the only good news I like. And I like to meditate on this. And that's what I do. But you know what? Even if you believe differently, it doesn't matter as long as you're saved. If you believe differently, I'm not going to argue with you. That's fine by me. Because you want to hear, you want to know what? It won't make a difference. God's going to do what He wants, no matter what we believe. If we read it right, good. If we read it wrong, it's still going to happen God's way. So the study of these things is not as important as sometimes we make it out to be. What's important is knowing Christ, reading the book, and getting to know more of Him. Most of the disciples, when they walked away from this thing, didn't even know what He just said. And He just gave the answers in two chapters. And it didn't matter. They didn't need to. All they needed to know was Him. And that's all you need to know. So we're running out of time. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank You for the Book. We thank You for the Savior. And Lord, it's good to be saved, and it's our desire to help other people not be deceived by bad religion and bad teaching, but just to come to know the Savior. Maybe they can just sit alone with Him on the Mount of Olives, and instead of asking questions about the end times, they can ask questions about Him and get to know Him better. And this is our prayer in Jesus' name, amen.