We're a Bible-teaching church, of course, so we just kind of teach verse-by-verse, line-by-line, and right now we're doing a series on major prophetic passages, so it's not just one book, but it started with Daniel and key passages and Ezekiel and Zechariah, and now we're transitioning to the New Testament, and we'll be in Matthew 24 and 25. We always have some opportunity to get in fellowship with the Lord before we start, because the believer in Christ in this dispensation is to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. And therefore, if we do stop walking by the Spirit, we end up walking by the flesh and committing sin, and we need to confess this to the Lord. The confession is just simply a private admission or acknowledgement to God of one's personal sin against His standard of righteousness. And 1 John 9 tells us that if we confess our sins, He's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So this has to do with the closeness and intimacy of a believer as he walks with the Lord. It's only for those who already have a relationship with the Lord. And that relationship is obviously just by grace through faith alone and Christ alone. So the confession is a means of enjoying or being restored to that intimacy in the walk of the Christian. So let's take a moment in the privacy of our soul as we get started, and you can have an opportunity for that if need be, and then we'll start. Heavenly Father, as we come to study your prophetic words through your Son, given in the Discourse on Kingdom Righteousness, we pray, Lord, you'd give us wisdom and insight to understand these things, which have been studied by a great many men and are of great interest today in continuing to be in prophetic studies. So help us understand it. We ask by your Spirit that you'll open our eyes to behold wonderful things in your Word. which things are all wonderful, and to realize these things are the greatest things in the world, and they eclipse every other loyalty, every other desire, every other hope. Our hope is in Christ and the things to come. And so we give thanks, and in His name we pray these things. Amen. All right. When you come into the Gospels, as I mentioned last week, you have a prophetic picture already painted from the Revelation in the Old Testament. And it looks like in the New Testament that the kingdom of God can come at any time. And that's why John said, John the Baptist said, repent to the nation Israel for the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven is at hand. So it was near to coming. The fourth Gentile kingdom predicted in the book of Daniel, Rome, had come. The 77's calendar revealed in Daniel 9 had almost run its course. You can even argue that they may have thought that the regathering and unbelief that Ezekiel prophesied had already taken place under Cyrus, so that all that remained was Elijah is to come and to restore the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers, so they would be regathered as a nation in belief. and the kingdom of God would come. But all that, John says, was contingent on a spiritual preparation of the nation Israel. That is, to repent. And if they did repent, then John would have been Elijah, right? But even John says, I'm not Elijah, and Jesus says, Elijah is still to come. The reason is because the nation Israel, of course, did not repent. And by repent, we mean they needed to have a change of mind. And the nation Israel needed to have a change of mind about what? A change of mind about the kind of righteousness that was necessary to enter the kingdom, or for the kingdom to come, and that generation to enter. If they did repent, of course, they would believe John's message. They would have gone after John, and when John pointed to the one who is the Lamb of God, they would have put their faith in him. But when John came, he pointed Jesus out, he showed that, and Jesus did the works of the Messiah predicted in the Old Testament that only Messiah could do, we call these messianic miracles, only He could do. So much so that even the people are saying in Matthew 12, could this be the Son of David? And of course the leadership said no. He also had orthodox teaching. He taught the Old Testament in its true intent. And yet the Pharisees and the Sadducees would not repent. And they led the people to reject him. The Pharisees went so far as to say that the miracles that Jesus was doing, and they never denied that he did the miracles, but they denied that the true source of the miracles was the Spirit of God. And they said that he had done these by Satan himself and claimed that he was indwelled by Satan personally. And so Jesus pronounced judgment on that generation of Israel, a judgment which came in AD 70 when the Romans under Titus surrounded Jerusalem and they destroyed it and the temple. And so the kingdom of God was postponed from the human point of view and a new age would intervene. And this new age would come to be the age during which the church would be established. And then the prophesied kingdom would only come after the church is complete And that arrives when a generation of Israel comes along, repents, and produces the fruit of the kingdom and so forth. So that's the big picture. It's this theme of three things, offer of the kingdom, rejection of the kingdom, postponement of the kingdom, that really gives us the background for Jesus' most extensive prophetic discourse. Matthew 24 and 25, commonly known as the Olivet Discourse. I know that many of you on Wednesday nights in our study on the Gospel of Matthew, verse by verse, went through this in great detail, and not too long ago. So we, in one sense I apologize, but in another sense I don't, because even myself, after having taught it at least six or seven times in my time here, still, and even in this last week, have picked up a few more things in my continued study of it. So our series on major, and of course I can't avoid it because this is really a separate series from that one, and I would be remiss to leave out Jesus's most extensive and detailed teaching in his whole ministry on prophecy. I've been asked to teach, actually, on this discourse at the Pre-Trib conference this December. in tandem with Robert Dean, pastor of West Houston Bible Church. So he's teaching the gospel of Matthew as well as I am, and he's a little bit behind me, but not far, and we've been in dialogue about a lot of this, and he made the proposal to the director of the pre-trib, and together we are going to have two separate papers that deal with this, because we're coming to the same conclusions, and we both studied it so extensively, so extensively that I may honestly say that I'm very tired of it. but we'll be giving a couple papers at the end of the year on this discourse. Now I want to teach this discourse in three sections to us in this hour, not the 10 or 12 that I taught on Wednesday night. First, I want to teach the sign of His coming in chapter 23, 37 to 24, 31. Second, next week I want to teach Matthew 24 32 to 42, which are the exhortations to be prepared for His coming. And then lastly, that should be 2443, not just 243, 2443 to 2546, the judgments at His coming. So you can see from this brief outline that, in my estimation, the discourse relates entirely to events related to the second coming and the generation that sees these things. It doesn't relate to the rapture and to the church. And that's the main reason Robby and I are giving our papers at the pre-trib is to show why those who try to stick the rapture somewhere in Matthew 24 or 25 are mistaken in doing so. So today we just want to look at the first of these three sections, right? The sign of His coming, 2337 to 2431. And that's a lot, so obviously it's going to be highlights for the most part. Don't expect every detail to be unfolded. If you turn to Matthew 2337 to 243, we come to the setting. 23-37 to 24-3 is the setting for the discourse. So verse 37 is a pronouncement, Jesus' pronouncement of rejection. That generation, I rejected him. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Jerusalem is the capital city of the Jewish people, and thereby it represents all the Jewish people. It's the Jewish people, he says, who in the past killed the prophets, stoned those who were sent to her. And when Jesus came as the last and the greatest of all that God sent them, what did they do to him? Well, they rejected and crucified him. So he had wanted to gather them. as a hen gathers her chicks. We've raised chickens, and we once tried to bring, well, several times, bring some new chicks in under a mother who's not the true mother, which you can do on occasion. And I watched this one hen who had about 30 little chicks, the poor thing trying to deal with 30 little chicks. She wanted so bad to gather those little chicks under her wings, but they weren't willing at first. They were very tentative, because if they got close to her at first, she would really give them one. But they did gradually learn, and they did become willing. But it's that picture that Christ came to gather them, but they were unwilling. They never came to Him. They never received Him. They were disobedient. They were an obstinate people. But you see, He did want to gather them, but they didn't want to. And so, this verse is a picture of the rejection. and their obstinacy as a people, the nation Israel. In verse 38, a pronouncement, a judgment. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. The house is the temple. In other words, the temple is going to be destroyed. The temple had already been built by Solomon, then destroyed by the Babylonians, and then rebuilt under Zerubbabel, expanded under the Hashemaneans or Maccabees. And it was under construction at this time by the plans of Herod the Great, which started in 20 BC, 53 years before this happened. And it was still under construction until 64 AD. So the entire project took about 80 years. And yet Jesus is pronouncing, before it was even completed, that it was going to be destroyed. The reason it was going to be destroyed, of course, is because they had committed the unpardonable sin. They had rejected the Messiah in a vile way, claiming that what he had done by the Spirit, his mighty works, were done by Satan himself. This is the unpardonable sin, and the unpardonable sin was a sin committed only by that generation, and its judgment fell on that generation in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70. It's not something that can be committed today. Then in verse 39, after we've seen the rejection and a pronouncement of judgment for that rejection, we see a postponement of the kingdom. Jesus says, for I say to you, from now on, you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. So who is the you who must say this in order for him to return so that they see him? Well, who is he talking to in verse 37? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets. Jerusalem, Jerusalem is a representation of all the Jewish people. When the Jewish people say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, then they will see him again. But not until then. And as you notice in verse 39, that saying, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, is a quote from the Old Testament. And your margin will say it comes from Psalm 118, verse 26, which is classically known as a messianic greeting. That is, the Jewish people must greet the Messiah. They must welcome Him. They must ask Him to come back. And unless they utter these words, guess what? Jesus is never coming back. And therefore, God has to put pressure on the Jewish people to bring them to the point to ask Him to come back. And that is what the tribulation time is all about. then the kingdom will come. In verse 1, chapter 24, you see now they're walking away from the temple. Jesus just made this strange statement in verse 38, the destruction of the temple. And Jesus came out from the temple, and he's going away when his disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to him. They're having a hard time believing what he's saying about the temple. How could the temple be scheduled for destruction before it's even completed? And besides, do you realize the grandeur and the majesty and the immensity of the temple? It was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. From a distance, a traveler coming up to Jerusalem would see it gleaming pearl white marble encrusting the outside facade of the entire thing, such that it looked like a beautiful snow-covered palace. And here they are wondering, how could it be scheduled for destruction before it's even completed? And besides, it's so immense, how could anybody destroy this? And why would anybody destroy this beautiful, magnificent architectural achievement? And so they came up to point out the building stems. They're saying, tell us more, tell us more. In verse 2, he said to them, do you not see all these things, these buildings? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another which will not be torn down. In other words, yes guys, what I said back in verse 38 of the previous chapter, your house will be left to you desolate, is a reference to the temple. And they are going to be torn down. Not the retaining wall that is there today. which is built to create the platform. But the temple buildings themselves, the structures upon that retaining wall, would be pried one by one by the Romans and cast down into the streets below, the evidence of which we see even today if you go to Jerusalem, and especially on the southwest corner near Robinson's Arch. So yes, it's going to destruction. They had committed the unpardonable sin. And as they continue to walk, as they're leaving, going back to Bethany on the other side of the Mount Olivet, down through the valley, they're thinking, what are they thinking about? Well, how does this destruction of the temple, how does this fit into the prophetic picture that we know from the Old Testament? I should have thought of Daniel 9.26, because Daniel 9.26 is the only passage I know of that does predict the destruction of the temple. It says between the 69th week of Daniel and the 70th week, the Messiah will be cut off and the sanctuary will be destroyed. The sanctuary. I don't know if they thought about that, but they certainly did think of Zechariah 12 to 14 Zechariah 12 to 14 predicted that all the nations of the world would come against Jerusalem, and initially they would have victory over Jerusalem, they would plunder the city, they would rape the women, they would destroy half of the population, and leave the other half trapped, and at that time We're told the Spirit of God will be poured out upon the nation Israel. They would come to faith. They would utter the messianic greeting. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And of course, Jesus says, you won't see me until then. And when they say it, they will see him then. He will come in the sky and rescue them and establish his kingdom. So they're trying to figure all this out. How does the temple's destruction fit in this picture that we have from the Old Testament? And so in verse 3, As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, because that was quite a walk to go down the valley and up, so they're taking a break, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? Now the parallel in Mark 13, 3 tells us that it was Peter and John and James and Andrew, just four of them came to him privately, not all of them. And these are the four who said, when will these things happen? That is, the first question is, when will the temple be destroyed? It's a when question. Then the second question is, what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age? You say, well that's really two questions. No, in the Greek grammar it's really just one. They're tied together. And the reason is, is because the coming of the Messiah and the end of the age are events that happen together. See, the Jews only had two ages in their view of thinking. There's the age that we presently live in preceding the kingdom, and then there is the kingdom age that is to come. So when will be the sign of your coming is a question of what. There's a when question and a what question. And I think they kind of put all these together. Aren't all these things just going to kind of happen all together in close connection with what Zechariah said right in the end of the tribulation time? But Jesus did something interesting. He separated these. He said the temple's destruction is not going to happen the same time that the sign of my coming will take place. He separates them in time. Now it's hard to see that he does that, because there's this first question here. When will these things be? That's when are these temple buildings going to be cast down? Matthew doesn't record the answer to that. Now Jesus did answer the question, but Matthew wasn't interested in that question. He was interested in the issue of the kingdom and its establishment, and that doesn't relate to that. But Luke does record this answer in Luke chapter 21, verses 12 to 22. Luke 21, 12 to 22. It's very interesting because Matthew 24 has a parallel in Mark 13 and a parallel in Luke 21. And yet, if you study all these side by side, do comparative study, there is no parallel to one section in Luke. Luke has a unique section, not covered by Mark, not covered by Matthew. And it's Luke 21, 12 to 22, and in that section, Luke describes events that happened in the period of the book of Acts. He says that, you know, my disciples or apostles will minister, they're going to be persecuted, then Jerusalem is going to be surrounded by armies, and that's when the believers should leave Jerusalem, because Jerusalem is going to face their destruction for the unpardonable sin. But we're not going into that, except to say this, that Jesus did answer the first question here, and you can read it in your spare time in Luke 21, 12 to 22, and you'll see you won't find anything like those verses in Matthew or Mark. There's just no parallel. And the reason Matthew didn't say it again is because he is really interested in the events that immediately precede the establishment of the kingdom on earth. Because Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew, is all about the king and his kingdom program. What has happened to his kingdom program? If Jesus is really the king, where is Jesus' kingdom? Now, see? And the answer to that question is, the kingdom is not here now because the nation of Israel rejected Jesus. And His coming must be based on them saying the Messianic greeting, right? Did the first century welcome Him? Did they say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? No. Some did, but not the nation. That's why there's no kingdom now. But the kingdom will come in the future when they utter that messianic greeting. And that's what Matthew's interested in. The generation that comes along and issues that greeting. So his interest really is the second question. What will be the sign of your coming, even the end of the age? And everything in the discourse relates to the events that will occur right before the establishment of the kingdom. That's why I say that they don't relate to the church. Let me ask you a question. Are the apostles asking about the establishment of the Church, or the coming of the Church, or the rapture of the Church, or any of those things? No, they're not asking anything about that. They're asking about when is He coming to establish His Kingdom, because why? Well, because that's everything they know from the Old Testament. Everything about the Old Testament is the messianic hope of the Kingdom to come for Israel. Even in the book of Acts, you see, they're still not thinking about the church. In Acts chapter 1 verse 6, he's already been crucified. He's already been resurrected. And here he is 40 days, and Acts 1-3 says he's teaching them about what? The kingdom! For 40 days, can you believe this? For 40 days after the resurrection, he's teaching them more about the kingdom, and they come up to him and they say this. Is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? Let me ask you a question. Do you think they're very interested in the church? No, they have no clue about the church. And then we have theologian after theologian after the flowery words, big long commentaries, blah, blah, blah. And they want to put all this stuff, lots of stuff in Matthew 24 and 25 about the church. They don't care about the church. They don't even know what that is. So 23, 37 to 24, 3 are the setting. Okay, the setting. for the discourse. And it all relates to things they're interested in relative to the coming of the kingdom. Now we come to 24.4-14, 24.4-14, and these things, all these verses cover the entire tribulation time, or the 70th week of Daniel. Because notice the phrase at the end of verse 3, the last part of their question, and the end of the age. That's a key Okay, that is the key. Because as Jesus begins to answer, look at verse 6. And what do you see at the end of this verse? Well, verse 6 is not the end of the age, is it? Because Jesus said so. But notice verse 14. Notice verse 14. this gospel the kingdom shall be proceeds although the kingdom this gospel the kingdom shall be preaching the whole world is a testimony to all nations and what then the end will come so by the end of verse 14 you are at the end of the tribulation therefore everything in verses 4 to 14 covers the tribulation time now we can divide this a bit further as I've shown here on this outline because we know from Daniel book of Daniel that Israel during the 70th week of Daniel or tribulation is going to experience persecution not for the entire thing but for the second half remember just the second half is when they come under their most intense persecution and so look at verse 9 and verse 9 describes every nation on earth hating Israel because of my name's sake hating the Jewish nation. So verse 9 then starts the second half. Before that you don't have anything like that. So therefore verses 4 to 8 are the first half of the tribulation. Verses 9 to 14 are the second half of the tribulation. That takes you all the way to the end, right? That takes you all the way to the end. And then you say, well what about verses 15 and 16? That's not the end. That's the abomination of desolation. Right. Right. And that happens when? At the midpoint. Right at the midpoint. Daniel 9, 27. In the middle of the week. Right in the middle. The abomination of desolation. So we have the event that triggers the second half is then highlighted to give the Jewish believers an opportunity to know what to look for, to escape before the persecution happens. And then we have verses 17 to 28, more characteristics of the second half of the tribulation. And at last, verses 29 to 31, the actual sign of His coming. What is the sign of His coming? Finally, He answers the question. that he's most interested in now. So Jesus begins in verses 4 to 8 describing the first half of the tribulation. And he starts with a warning in verse 4. Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you. Now question, before we get mired in this, who is you? See that no one misleads you. Who? Who's you? Jerusalem. Jerusalem. Who kills the prophets? He's, yeah, I know the apostles, four of them at least, are standing there, but he's speaking to them, yes, but through them to the Jewish people, to the Jewish people, okay? Those who live in the time just before Messiah comes, and what's the warning to them, to the Jewish people at that time? See to it that no one misleads you. You see, the time coming just before Messiah returns is the period of greatest deception in the world. Okay, verse 4 warns of don't be misled. Let's see no one misleads you. Verse 5 says what? Many will be misled. Verse 11 says false prophets will mislead. And then all the way to verse 24, says there's going to be great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. See? Mislead, mislead, mislead, mislead, mislead. That's the main characteristic of the 70th week of Daniel, is great deception that will mislead. So Jesus, in the very first verse of the descriptions of the first half of the Tribulation, characterizes the entire time period saying, see to it, first off the bat, see to it, no one misleads you in this period of time. about my coming. Why verse 5? Because many are going to come in my name saying I'm the Christ or I'm the Messiah and they're going to mislead many. You see early on in the 70th week or the tribulation many false Christs are going to come, not just one. You can hold your place here if you want and look at Revelation 6 verse 1 just briefly. Actually hold your place in both of these, we'll kind of just flip back and forth. Revelation 6, 1 and 2, it's the first seal in the tribulation time, right? First seal in the 70th week of Daniel. So in Revelation 6, 1, you see the Lamb breaks the seal. John says in verse 2, I looked, behold, a white horse, he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. So the first horse is white in color, symbolizing peace. And the rider who sits on the horse of peace has a bow, but interestingly he doesn't have any arrows, and a crown, he has a crown, and so he's a king, right? So who is the rider? Well, don't say the Antichrist, and certainly don't say Christ, those are both older views, but anyway. The riders of these four horses are not individuals anyway, none of them are, but they are representatives. And the representation here is of a group of kings going forth to conquer the world. And how do they conquer it? With a message of peace. Peace on earth. Now, if you really think about what I just said, kings come along to conquer with a message of peace. Let's bring peace on the earth. What are they counterfeiting? They're counterfeiting exactly what Christ will do when he comes in his kingdom, where he will establish peace. This is a counterfeit peace, a counterfeit kingdom. And Daniel actually prophesied of ten kings who would come along, and then an eleventh would rise above them all, the Antichrist. And so, could it be that these ten kings in Daniel are the rider of this horse, possibly? And of course, These ten kings then would be false Christs because Matthew 24 verse 5 is saying that early on in the tribulation there will come many in my name saying I am the Messiah. So it seems the first seal is parallel to the verse 5 in Matthew 24. Now we look at 24 6, Matthew 24 6, you'll be hearing, this is also in the first half, you'll be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you're not frightened for those things must take place, but that's not yet the end. That's not the end yet. We're ramping up for the end, but that's not the end. Wars and rumors of wars. If you just flip real quick and look at Revelation 6, 3. Revelation 6, 3, we have the second seal, right? Again, the Lamb breaks the seal in verse 3, and then in verse 4, John sees this, And another, a red horse, went out to him who sat on it. It was granted to take peace from the earth, to take the peace, and that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him. So the second horse is red, that symbolizes bloodshed. The rider takes peace from the earth, presupposing that the first seal was peace, right, a false peace. And what did Jesus say the Jews would be hearing in chapter 24 verse 6? Wars and rumors of wars. There are going to be wars going on around the world, not in Israel, but around the world. What does Jesus say to the Jews at that time? Don't be afraid. Those things have to take place. Dei, particle of necessity, has to take place, but that's not yet the end. That's not the end of the 70th week of Daniel. That's not the end of the tribulation. The wars and rumors of wars, that is not the sign that the end is near. That's not the sign of my coming. That's not it. Jesus says it's not yet the end. So that's not it. But then in verse 7, Jesus explains more about these wars. You see it's 4 that is the explanation. Let me explain more about these wars, he says. For nation will rise against nation. That's individual nations against other nations. Like France fighting Albania. or something. And then kingdom against kingdom, that's coalitions of nations joining in conflict against one another. And all this will be going on, some nations against other nations in war, other coalitions of nations against other coalitions. All at the same time, all over the world. And this, of course, is corresponding to the seals in the Book of Revelation. I'm not going to go through that over and over. You can read this yourself. But the things here, see, they don't relate to World War I. They don't relate to World War II. That's a common claim. But they don't. This is all stuff that's in the Tribulation just preceding the coming of Messiah. Now, then we see also in verse 7, not only nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, but there'll be famines and then there'll be earthquakes. And those are actually the third and the sixth seal. So these are all things in the first half. And today, we hear this all the time. Actually, I did a whole lesson one time called, something like, Are Earthquakes the Sign of the End? I think we had a, it was like 10 years ago or something. There was a big earthquake in some part of the world, and everybody's like, oh my goodness, it's Matthew 24. No, it's not. I mean, I looked at all the US Geological Society data for the last 100 years, from early 1900 to around 2001 or 2002, in their charting of the intensity and the quantity of earthquakes, so intensity, that's one measurement, quantity is another over about the last century, it showed a slight decrease over the last hundred years. There's not, prophecy scholars all the time, well we're seeing an increase in earthquakes, you know, increase in intensity of earthquakes. No, we're seeing an increase in the number of seismographs, and an increase in the ability of the seismographs to capture earthquake data, actually capture the movements of the earth. So the technology is better, but we're not seeing an increase in earthquakes. What's happened is the media. You know, you hear about more earthquakes, we have more reported through seismographs, but in all reality there's been a slight decrease over the last hundred years. And actually there's been a decrease from the time of the flood. The time of the flood is the greatest time of earthquakes in the world. Right? I mean, Yellowstone, isn't it just like one big volcano? Same thing. All these giant ones, you know, like Mount St. Helens is just like, it's not even really a middle-sized volcano. It's sort of just slightly below average. And you think, my goodness, we saw that back in the early 80s. I mean, that was massive, you know? Poor Harry Truman, the guy with all his cats or whatever, didn't stuck it out, but, well, he stuck it out forever. You know, that was nothing. The stuff that happened during the flood was far more immense, and Yellowstone is a testimony to that. And the earthquakes as well, of course. So ever since then, there's been an exponential decay from the time of the flood to where we are now. The next great earthquake that will truly shake the whole world, where everybody can feel it, will be under the sixth seal. And it's described in the book of Revelation. It says every island on earth will move. That's the big earthquake. That's a big one. But until that time, they're going to gradually decrease. Because we're in a pattern since the flood. But here, this is the first big one, okay? So there are other things that are going to take place in the first half, but verses 4, 6, 5, 6, 7, and 8 are a summary of these things. And Jesus says in verse 8, but all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Okay, here we have a metaphor, right? Birth pangs. It's a metaphor that's used to characterize the struggle of a woman as she's about to have a baby. Once she begins to have these pangs, they continue to intensify until the baby is born. And everybody says, praise God. In the Old Testament, birth pangs are repeatedly used as a technical name for the tribulation that's coming. Because it describes that the world is going to go into a time of great difficulty right before the kingdom arrives. And the things then in verses 4 to 8 are descriptions of the initial shocks, or birth pangs, which will continue into the second half until, not a baby is born, but the kingdom. And everybody will say, praise God. Now in verses 9 to 14 then we come to the second half of the tribulation. The second half. It's at this time Daniel said that Israel is going to be turned against by all the nations of the world. And that's what we find in verse 9. See? because of my name." So in particular the hatred is against the Jewish believers at this time in the second half, the Jewish believers. This is beginning at the midpoint, as will be told later in verse 15, the abomination of desolation will signal the turning of the Gentiles against Jewish believers in particular. In verse 10, at that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. This is Jews. They're falling away in the sense that they're falling into the deception of the false prophets who are going to be pointing to the Antichrist as the true Christ. And as such, there's going to be this division in the nation, and fellow Jews are going to be betraying one another over to the Antichrist. turning them over for extermination. In verse 11, many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. I take, for the most part, I take these to be Jewish false prophets because Zechariah 13 talks about the slaying of Jewish false prophets toward the end of the tribulation by Jews who come to faith and realize that to remove idolatry from God's land we have to execute the prophets and fulfill the law. And so they're trying to do that in Zechariah. for the kingdom to get ready to come, to bring Messiah. In verse 12, because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. You know, Antichrist is known as the man of lawlessness in the book of 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The world is heading toward a period, you can already detect it's going that way. It's going toward a period of intense lawlessness. And that's true on a global scale, but it's also true relative to Jewish practice and law in the land of Israel. And most everything here is really concerned, for the most part, about the land, though it does expand to global proportions in places. But they have certain laws, special laws, like keeping Sabbath. and so forth and so on. And that's what this is. Lawlessness is going to be increased. They're going to be breaking Jewish law, and that's going to cause a lot of problems among the Jewish people. Verse 20 talks about, you know, hope you don't have to escape on Sabbath. But because of that, because of all that lawlessness in Israel, the Jewish people that love is going to grow cold for one another. They're not going to have compassion for one another. Everybody's going to be out to save themselves, so to speak. It's a difficult time. Love will grow cold. But, verse 13, the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. The one who endures to the end in what? Well, the one who endures to the end in this difficult time with love and compassion for others, he's going to endure to the end when Messiah comes, meaning he will be saved. That is, he'll be rescued or delivered, physically taken into the kingdom, safely kept from Antichrist and his armies. It's a physical deliverance. Verse 14 says, the gospel of the kingdom this gospel shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come." Then the end. See, this is the end, right? This is the end of the tribulation time, right here. This is right on the cusp of it. So the gospel of the kingdom, that's the message in the early gospel of Matthew, that the kingdom is at hand. That's not the message we preach today. The kingdom is not at hand. It's not near to coming. And we preach the gospel of the cross. So this gospel of the kingdom, that the kingdom is at hand, is going to be preached to all the nations as a warning that if they continue to fight They're coming against a kingdom that will be established, that is Christ's kingdom. The book of Revelation says that this will take place in the second half by means of an angel who will fly in midheaven around earth and will proclaim the eternal gospel to all on earth. They will all know that the king is about to return in his kingdom. And then what do they need to do then? Well, they need to believe the gospel of the cross, the work of Christ. That He died on the cross and He rose again for their paying the penalty of their sins. They need to put their faith alone in Christ alone. in order to be a part of the kingdom that is coming, that is near to hand at this time. Then Jesus says the end will come. So the end is the end of this present age, which then gives way to the kingdom age to come. So by verse 14 again, you're right at the cusp of the end of the tribulation, and that concludes the second half of the tribulation. Then verses 15 to 16 is the next section, and this is the abomination of desolation. This is the event that triggers the second half, right? Because Daniel said, Daniel 9.27, in the middle of the week the Antichrist will come along and commit the abomination of desolation. And that's the beginning of Israel being hated by all nations. So this overlays with verse 9, right? In other words, he's saying, now look, let me tell you what's going to happen so the Jewish believers will know when to leave, so they don't get executed by the Antichrist. So he's going back. Right? In verse 15, to describe things that give rise to verse 9. This is a common way of writing in Jewish narrative. They'll do the whole thing in sequence, then they'll back up and give you highlights of the major important issues. And that's exactly what's happening. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, so it's presupposing a rebuilt temple in this future time, let the reader understand, presupposing this is somewhere in the distance. then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. So the abomination of desolation is a key, it's at the midpoint. And what do they have to do when they see it in verse 16? The Jews who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. to get out of there. They're going to be caught and executed if they don't. From other passages we think that they're going to go to Petra in modern-day Jordan, but certainly to Jordan in modern-day Jordan. Verses 17 to 28, then we have more characteristics of the second half of the Tribulation. So you see verses 17 and 18, these are just expressions of urgency of fleeing, because they've got to escape. He says, whoever's on the housetop must not go down to get the things that are out there in his house. Whoever's in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. You know, it's just, time is of the essence. You don't have time to go get provisions, besides the Lord is going to provide for them as He did for the wilderness generation. They don't need to go get things, because He's going to provide everything they need. Shoes, water, food, He'll provide it all. Verse 19, here's a warning to those who will have traveling difficulties. Woe to those who are pregnant, to those who are nursing babies in those days. It would also apply to others who had other disabilities for traveling as well. And verse 20, a command is given for believers in that time. But pray that your flight will not be in the winter or on a Sabbath. Why not winter? Well, I've seen snow in Jerusalem. I haven't been there when it snowed, but I've seen snow on Jerusalem. I went through pictures about looking at it. Well, winter travel would make things more difficult. It's sort of like maybe snow in Dallas. That's what I experienced when I looked at snow in Jerusalem. Like snow in Dallas, you know, at the most you get about five or six inches at the most. What about not Sabbath? Well, Sabbath would prohibit Jewish believers from traveling because they want to keep the Sabbath in this time. And I think that since the Lord told them to pray this prayer, I think the believing Jews in this time will pray this prayer. And guess what? I think God will answer it. I don't think it's going to be on a Sabbath. I don't think it's going to be in the winter. That's just me. You can believe it or not. Now, a further reason for the urgency to get out of Judea is then stated. For then there will be a great tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. And this is where it conflates. It gets really big. It gets global in scope. This is a period of unparalleled difficulty in the whole world. Now since there can be only one unparalleled time of difficulty, then the three other passages in the Old Testament that talk about that period of unparalleled difficulty for the world must all be speaking about the same time, and that time is the second half of the Tribulation, that three and a half years. And the difficulty is going to be so great, look at verse 22, it's one of the scariest verses in the Bible, but the scariest is really in Zephaniah 1. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be cut short. The words translated cut short have thrown a lot of people off. They say, well, Daniel said it's going to be three and a half years, or the total thing will be seven years, so he's talking about shortening that period. What, it may be six years or something? No, you can't violate prophecy. Prophecy said it'd be seven years. What, we're going to come along later and God's going to change the Bible? No, you need to go back and change the Bible. This term means suddenly terminated. If the last three and a half years were not suddenly terminated, there would be nothing left with the breath of life in it. Not one fish, not one bird, not one human, not one animal, not any. All that would be left would be total blood saturated in the earth. That would be all that is left. That's why this is one of the most scariest verses in the whole Bible. That time period must be suddenly terminated and it will be terminated by the second coming of Jesus Christ. He will come to this earth. And the reason that he does it is stated, but for the sake of the elect, which of course is the Jewish remnant at this time, for their sake those days will be suddenly terminated again. And how are they going to be terminated suddenly? By the coming of the Son of Man in verse 30. So verse 23, then, that is, in those days of great tribulation upon the world, something the world has never seen, if anyone says to you, if anyone tells the Jewish remnant, behold, here's the Christ, or there he is, don't believe him. Why shouldn't they believe him? Maybe it's him. No, it won't be. Because nobody's going to have to tell anybody he's over here or he's over there. His coming is not going to be gradual and private. It is going to be public and it is going to be magnanimous. Everyone will know. No one will have to tell anyone. Verse 24 is the explanation. For false Christs and false prophets will arise. They'll show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Now what's happening here is false messiahs, false prophets, and what they're trying to do is they're trying to draw the Jewish remnant out, out of hiding in the wilderness. And they're going to do great signs and wonders, wonderful things. I mean, greater magic than anybody in this world has ever seen. I've studied magic a lot because of my interest in comparing magicians who try to duplicate the miracles of Christ and so forth and so on. These things will be even greater than what the magicians in Egypt can do, those sorcerers. And yet they're all going to be false signs. Their purpose is to mislead the believing Jewish remnant to draw them out of hiding so that the Antichrist can kill them. That's what it's all about. But he says, don't believe it. You should not believe it. Verse 25, behold, I've told you in advance. I told you this so that you will know to keep your eyes on the Word of God and what the Word of God says and not on all the smokes and mirrors that Satan is creating in that period of time. You see? It's the same story in Deuteronomy 13 and Deuteronomy 18. In the Old Testament, God actually said that He would send them false prophets and they would do great signs and wonders to see if they really loved Him. And how does it say they would really love Him? If they would test His words to see if they were orthodox teaching. That's why this church, we're not into all that stuff. We're not carried away by all the miracles and signs and so forth and so on. All the holy baloney that goes on in Christian circles. Because that stuff isn't real. That's all just phony baloney. The thing that counts is the Word of God. The thing that counts is the Word of God. And he says, I told you in advance, keep your eyes on the word and what I said, and forget all that phony baloney. Because this is the truth. That is a deception. Verse 26. If they say to you, behold, he's in the wilderness, don't go out. See, they're hiding in the wilderness. So, hey, just all you have to do is go down to the corner store. He's just right over there. Come on, come on, come out. No, don't go. It may be tempting to go. It's not far. don't go. Or, behold, he's in the inner rooms, don't believe him. You know, come on, come over here, inside this place over here. Because if they do that, they're going to be exposed, they're going to be arrested, they're going to be executed. And so as long as they believe the Word of God in this time, and not these deceptions, they will survive until the end. And they'll be rescued. But if they believe these lies, they're going to be executed. The reason they should not believe these lies is verse 27. Here is what the coming of the Son of Man is going to be like. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. In other words, number one, when it comes, when lightning comes, number one, is it predictable? No. I mean, you're kind of waiting, watching to see, oh look, there was one. Okay, but here's the other thing about it. Is it slow? Is it gradual? No. It's fast. And that's exactly how the Son of Man's coming is going to be. It's going to be sudden, it's going to be fast, like lightning, and it's going to be public. Verse 28 gives the results when he comes. Mass carnage. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. You see, Jesus will return at this point, and there will be a lot of death, because Israel has issued the Messianic greeting. They have said, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. He is coming back to rescue them. They will have already suffered one defeat in Jerusalem. He's going to return with great power and glory to destroy all their enemies, and it's going to be a lot of blood. Because all those armies of the world who came against them are going to be destroyed. That doesn't include everybody on the planet. There's other people elsewhere. But those armies that came against them will be destroyed at this point. And that's what that verse is about. Then verses 29 to 31 describe the sign of His coming. Finally, the sign of His coming. You say, my goodness, you know, this is what we wanted to know the whole time. Why didn't you just tell us the answer? It's like Dr. Carter who ran for president. Somebody asked him a question, he backs up like 20 yards and starts to give the answer. And he gives us a wonderful, interesting answer for those who will stay tuned in. And that's what Jesus has done. He's given a lot of stuff that lead up to answer the real question, and this was it, what's the sign of your coming? Verse 29 sets the stage. Immediately after the tribulation of those days, not before, not at the end, but immediately after those seven years, four things will take place. First, a cosmic blackout. The sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky. So it's going to be completely black and there's going to be cosmic phenomena. Zechariah 14.6 also described this as a thick darkness. So this is in line with other prophetic passages. Second, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Who are the powers of the heavens? Well, they're the demons who rule this world presently. They will know they'll be shaken because they know their judgment is soon, and they're about to be defeated and locked away for the period of the thousand-year kingdom. So they're shaken, shaken up. Third thing that will happen, the sign of His coming. Here it is. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky. The problem is, what's the sign? He didn't really tell us what the sign is. There's nothing noted. All we know is that the sky is black, so if there's some kind of sign, it's got to be something light. Otherwise, you can't see it. Since in the Old Testament, the fire, the light, and the holy of holies, and so forth, with Shekinah glory, some kind of visible manifestation of God's presence, then probably the light or the sign will be the light of the Shekinah glory against this black background. Fourth then, the tribes of Israel will be mourning. And then the tribes of the earth will mourn. The word earth could be translated land. It's the same Greek word. Now since Zechariah describes all Israel mourning at the time of the second advent, it says the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves, the house of Shammai and their wives by themselves, and so forth and so on. Since Zechariah says that, then this should be translated, the tribes of the land of Israel. And that's the focal point of the whole passage. The tribes of the land of Israel will mourn. They will be mourning because they realize what their nation had done to their king. And after these four things, then we see, they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. So the Deliverer will come and he will bring his kingdom. Verse 31, And he will send forth his angels with a great trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. By the way, who are the elect throughout the whole passage? It's the Jewish remnant. And this is a quote from the Old Testament. Who is it who's being gathered? It's the Jewish remnant from all over the world who's being gathered. Isaiah 27, 13 predicted it in connection with a great trumpet. It'll come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who are perishing, the Jewish believers who are perishing in the land of Assyria, and those who are scattered in the land of Egypt, the two places in the Old Testament they went into exile, which here stand for the whole world where Jewish believers are in exile and dispersion. They will come and worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. You see, they'll be brought there by these angels. Jesus won't have to send out El Al. He'll just send out the angels, and they'll get a special transport. And here's the thing. You see, this doesn't have anything to do with the rapture. People say, this is the rapture. It sounds just like the rapture. Guess what? At the rapture, everybody is resurrected, right? We're all resurrected at that moment. Is there any resurrection here? No. No, they're just gathered in their mortal bodies. That's right, because this isn't the rapture. This isn't the rapture at all. This is the regathering of Israel to the land in their mortal bodies to have the fulfillment of their covenants to them in the kingdom. Has nothing to do with the church. Church isn't even in the picture. They don't even know about the church. What's a church? This is Israel. This is a time of Israel's trouble. This is Christ's second coming to rescue Israel from certain annihilation. And then, once they're gathered, we'll see that amongst the Jews who are regathered, there are believing Jews, there are unbelieving Jews. And they'll be judged in Matthew chapter 24, 43 through 25, 30. Those are all judgments for the Jews who are gathered in verse 31. They'll be judged for kingdom entrance, first of all, which is always by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. And second of all, for reward, which is based on humble service. And so therefore the disciples' question has been answered, right? What will be the sign of your coming? Well, something like a bright light against a black background, that will be the sign of the coming. But we've gotten a lot more. The thing is this, it's a sign. If you're in that time and you see the sign, guess what? It's too late. It's already over. So then what's the lesson? to be prepared well in advance before that comes. And that's what next week is all about. You start verse 32, and he's giving exhortations, saying, so be prepared. When you see all this stuff coming on the world, this difficult time that prevails, the birth pangs, all that, believe in the Lord Jesus. Be ready. Because you don't know exactly when he's coming back. Nobody's going to be able to tell. And there's a reason why. People say, oh, it's the rapture. Nobody knows. It's got to be the rapture. Oh my goodness. Give me a break. If you live in a time of the worst famines and the worst earthquakes, cosmic blackouts, three or four mentioned in the book of Revelation, which for great periods of time, it's totally black. Do you think you're going to be able to keep up with the time perfectly? Not when you've got all the satellites, you know, you're depending, you're saying, no, I would be because I've got my phone. Yeah, well don't forget that all the cosmic stuff, you know, the 5,100 whatever they are number of satellites that are up there are probably completely incapacitated by the massive amounts of meteors and so forth that's going to fall on the earth at that time. Did you know there's only been one lady who's ever been hit by a meteorite? Anyway, that's another story. It happened in like 1973 or so, something like that. But in that time, I imagine people will be getting hit by meteorites. But she was okay. Just so you know. It hit her bedside clock and then bounced over and hit her. Anyway. And she did get to keep the rock eventually. Anyway, that's all the story. But all these things relate to the generation that sees these things, the generation of Jewish people who see these things, And they are to be prepared well in advance so that when He comes, when they see that sign, they're already clothed with the righteousness of Christ through faith. And I hope you are clothed with the righteousness of Christ through faith. It's a free gift. You know, Paul says, for by grace you have been saved by faith. And that not of yourselves, where it's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We don't get saved by showing God all of our good stuff, and neither will Jews in this time. It's by saying that Christ alone is my righteousness. I put my trust in Him. He paid the penalty for my sin. He did everything. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Let's close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, as we study this great prophetic discourse that our Lord gave, some of it is parting words, really it's parting words to the nation Israel, because they're really put sword on the back burner until the church is complete and done and taken and raptured away, and then all these things will unfold. And of course we know that we live, it seems that we live, very near the end of the church ages, the stage is being set for the events we study today in the tribulation to unfold. So help us to live every moment as if it's our last moment, looking for the blessed hope of the Lord Jesus Christ to come for His church. Maybe we will get to be that one generation that gets to not taste death. What a blessing that would be, for it is no doubt the greatest day of the church, when it is consummated, when it is complete, and when it is united with her Savior in toto. All of us, from the day of Pentecost to the rapture, together, a completed body, the body of Christ. We pray, Lord, for that to come soon, and certainly we see that it seems to be. and then all these things unfold and to marvel and to return with him in his kingdom to reign and rule for the thousand years. We look forward to all these things. Help us to humbly serve one another until that time. In Christ's precious name, amen.