Hello and welcome to our program. We begin a new series today concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ and will Christians go through any part of the tribulation. We'll be looking at that in just a minute. Well, the first coming of the Lord cannot be denied by anybody, even a Muslim or anybody else who has any other religion other than believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They can't cash the paycheck without remembering how long ago it was since Jesus was here. Nobody denies the first coming of Christ. Now, the Bible says a lot about his return. I want to ask this question. Do you think that Jesus will come today? Well, probably you're thinking, no, not probably today. Well, Matthew 24, 44 said, therefore be also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. So, if you think he's not coming, you better get ready, because he said he'd be coming back when people think he's not coming back. Such an hour as ye think not, just play on words here, we've never lived in such a think not generation, As what we're living in now, very few people do their own thinking. They'll let their favorite politician do their thinking for the politics. They'll let their favorite religious person do their thinking for their religion. We're living in a think-not generation. Well, Jesus said, Be ye therefore ready, for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh. In Matthew chapter 24, the disciples asked this question in verse 3. They asked the Lord, What shall be the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world? Now that word world there means actually age, the consummation of the age. this last 2,000 years we've been in the local church age, and their question was, what shall be the sign of the coming and of the end of that age? The first thing he said was, take heed, verse 4, take heed that no man Deceive you. Now, if you're going to take heed that no man deceive you, that's going to require a little bit of thinking. Take heed. What are you going to know? How are you going to know if somebody is deceiving you or not? He said in verse 5, many shall come in my name. and they shall deceive many. He said in verse 11 many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. Then in verse 24 he said there be false prophets and they shall deceive. He's speaking obviously here about spiritual deception. We have never lived in an age when there has been more spiritual deception than there is today. Then he says you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. Well, there's always been wars. You can go back in the Old Testament and find there's all kinds of battles way back there, hundreds of years before Jesus came. But the key here is the word hear and the word rumors. You shall hear of wars and rumors, that word has been translated reports twice, you shall hear of wars and reports of wars. Have you turned the news on lately? You can see a situation as far as wars and reports of wars, you can see them all, they're happening today. It's what the Bible said it would be like before Jesus came back again. Not only that, he said nation against nation, but he also said kingdom against kingdom. Now again, we've always had one nation fighting another, but today we got kingdom against kingdom. People in their own country killing each other. He also said in this portion of Scripture that the gospel would be preached to all the world. Well, that wasn't able to happen until we come up with the World Wide Web. And now, this little broadcast that you're listening to right now, we get reports literally from all over the world, the people who are listening to this broadcast. And so you can see that these things are coming together. Jesus said, what shall be the sign of thy coming? of the end of this age gave us those signs in much more detail than what I'm giving you today in Matthew chapter 24. Now he says in verse 21, For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. When these signs that the disciples asked for, when they come, the Bible says when they're on the scene, then there shall be great tribulation. Now, prior to the great tribulation, which is the last three and a half years of the tribulation, verse 15 tells us the Antichrist will be revealed. Well, today we're on what I call the glide path to the tribulation. It's very obvious. We read back in Daniel chapter 2, verse number 20, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his, and he changeth the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and he setteth up kings. God is in control. The Bible said God reigns over the heathen. Psalm 47 and verse number eight. He puts kings in when he wants them in, he takes them out when he wants them out. We go back to the days when God wanted his people out of Egypt, and he raised up Pharaoh so that that could all come to be. When God wanted someone there so that Jesus would be crucified, so you and I could be saved, he had Pilate there ready to go. The Bible says in Daniel 4, 17, that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basis of men. Now, as I said, we're on the glide path to the Tribulation Period. It's very obvious, and you'll see that as we go through this series. And in order for that to come together, God is going to have to raise up some kings, some leaders in our society today who are against the things of the Word of God. When it comes to spiritual things, they're going to be against them. We're going to have to have someone like that in order for the Tribulation Period to come in. So we ought not to be so surprised when we see what is going on in the political world today. When we talk about the second coming of Jesus Christ, we need to make sure that we understand that when we talk about the rapture and we talk about the return of Christ, it's two different things. The rapture, we find that in 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 17 and 18, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord wherefore comfort one another with these words and so that's next on God's program and that is when the Lord comes we meet him in the air he does not come to this earth He comes and meets us, we go to meet Him. He shall come, it says, and we will be caught up together with those who have died before us, who God brings first, and then those of us that are alive. We go, it says, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, and that is the next thing on God's program. After that, there is the Tribulation period, which lasts for seven years, and then following the Tribulation period, we actually have the return of Christ when he comes back to this earth. In the Rapture, we go to be with him, In the return of Christ, we come with him, and the Bible says in Revelation 19 and verse 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. Now there's a lot of testimony in the Bible concerning the fact that he's coming back again, either referring to the rapture or to the actual second coming when he comes to this earth. I'll give you some of them. Jesus said this in Matthew 16 and 27, for the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Jesus said, the Son of Man shall come. Then in Matthew 25 and 31, again, he said, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. When he comes, he's taken charge. John chapter 14, verse number 2, Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. Again, when he was talking to Peter in John chapter 21, and Peter said, what will this man do, referring to John, and Jesus said in verse 22, if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Now Jesus said, he's coming back again. Then we have the testimony of the two angels, you remember, The disciples went out with Jesus to the Mount of Olives, and then he was taken up into heaven. And we read in Acts chapter 1 and verse number 10, And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner. Well, Paul the Apostle testified to the return of the Lord in many places. I'll give you a few of them. Philippians chapter 3, verse 20. He said, For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That word conversation actually means citizenship. If you're a Christian, your citizenship is in heaven. Remember that old chorus we used to sing years ago? This world is not my home. I'm just passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door, and I cannot feel at home in this world anymore. Then in Hebrews 9 and 28 we read that Paul said, So Christ once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time. Then we have what he wrote to the first Corinthians concerning the communion service, and he said in verse 26 of chapter 11, For as oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. And so we have the testimony of the Lord, we have the testimony of those two angels, we have the testimony of Paul the Apostle, then we have the testimony of James. He said in James 5 and 7, Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Then there's a book of Jude where Jude wrote in Jude 1 and 14, Behold the Lord cometh with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment. And then John said in Revelation 1 and 7, Behold he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him. So we have John, we have Jude, we have James, we have Paul, we have those angels, we have Jesus himself, all saying that Jesus is coming back again. As a matter of fact, in the New Testament, Paul makes reference to the Lord's return 50 times. One verse in every 30 in the New Testament refers to the fact that Christ is coming back, And when you study the Old Testament, you'll find there are 20 times as many references in the Old Testament to Christ's second coming as there is to his first coming. Even a casual study of the Word of God will indicate that Jesus is coming back very soon. It says in Luke 21 and 31, When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Well, in Matthew 24, we saw that he talked about wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, spiritual deception. The church would be in a mess. Now they're accepting homosexuality like it was just okay with God, abortion. Our churches are carnal like Corinth was. But these are all signs, the Bible says, that it'll be like that when Jesus comes back. One of the greatest signs we have is the Bible says that Israel would be back in the land. And after 2,000 years, she's back in the land. When I was born, she wasn't there. Now she is. And that is one of the things that had to happen so these prophecies could come true. Also, the Bible says, the love of many shall wax cold. There will be a tremendous increase of wickedness in the world. There would be financial conditions that would be upsetting to people. The Bible talks about the They would have computers that would talk, and you couldn't be buying and selling without them. The Bible talks about a one-world government. Everybody's talking about that these days. The Bible talks about a one-world church, and they're talking about that, too. So we see that there are all kinds of signs to his soon return, and we're going to look at that in a lot more detail in upcoming programs. Be sure and tune in for our next broadcast.