As I announced this morning, we're going to deal in this evening hours this week with Christ's sermon on the Mount of Olives delivered a few days before he died on the important subject of signs of his coming in the end of the age. We're dealing with many books today to talk about signs. Here is Christ's sermon on the subject as he deals with the questions that the disciples had posed to him. Now there's a passage scripture that my estimation has been much abused by commentators. In fact, if you read a half a dozen commentators on this, you'll probably find a half a dozen different answers because they come to it with presuppositions of whatever eschatological or prophetical system they have, and then they try to work this into it so it'll support their view, and sometimes it doesn't. And one of the basic problems is that they ignore some standard rules of biblical interpretation. It's amazing to me how competent scholars will do that, and with not any recognition of it, to just pass by the rules that keep you from going wrong in your interpretation. Now, in this passage particularly, one of the basic rules of interpretation is to look at the context, and so many just ignore this, because the context is what explains what's going on here. This was delivered, of course, to the disciples of Peter, Andrew, James, and John, according to Mark's Gospel. four disciples a few days before his own crucifixion, and it was in reply to questions that they had raised. You'll bear in mind that the Old Testament speaks of the first and second coming of Christ and tells us some of the events that precede the second coming. But the people in the Old Testament, even the writers of Scripture, did not understand that they were talking about two coming. they thought it was all the same event. And the Jewish rabbis struggled with this. How could the same Messiah be a suffering, dying Messiah, and at the same time a glorious reigning Messiah? Some of them thought perhaps there must be two Messiahs, one to do the suffering and the other to do the reigning. And then there was a view also that the sufferings might apply to the Jewish nation, but that when the Messiah came, he'd be a glorious reigning Messiah. And it was common expectations. throughout the Old Testament and in the Gospel period, that when the Messiah came, that he'd rescue Israel from their enemies, exalts them as a nation, and bring in righteousness and peace to the world. And that was the context of this. Now the disciples, when they met Jesus, recognized that he had the credentials of the Messiah. They saw the evidence that he was indeed the Son of God, the Messiah that's prophesied in the Old Testament. And they confidently expected that he was going to somehow... gain control the situation and throw off the yoke of Roman government on them and exalt Israel as a nation. After all, he had told them on one occasion that they would sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. They didn't understand that he had to suffer and die first. And as the years wore on, almost three and a half years or so before this sermon was delivered, the disciples began to wonder because they didn't see anything happening. that seemed to fulfill their expectation. In fact, many of the Jews that earlier had followed Christ were beginning to wander away and leave him because he had said some things that he didn't understand. And so they began to question a bit about this because after all they knew that the chief priests and the scribes were against Christ and they would like to kill him if they could. They knew all that. They knew there was danger involved. They didn't see any evidence that the prophecies were going to be fulfilled about his glorious reign. In fact, this was behind what Judas Iscariot did when he sold Christ for thirty pieces of silver. He reasoned like people do who sin that somehow he had gained by doing it. And he argued that if Christ was really the Messiah, they wouldn't be able to harm him. But if he wasn't the Messiah, then so what? At least he'd have thirty pieces of silver. He was one of those things where he figured he couldn't lose, and of course he ended up losing everything, his life, and his destiny. Yes, it was a sad day for Judas Iscariot when he committed suicide, even before Christ was crucified. And so we have all this going on as a background. Now, the disciples themselves begin to wonder because in Matthew chapter twenty-three, it's a long chapter of some thirty-nine verses, Christ gives an unsparing indictment upon the religious leaders of their day. If the average preacher worked up a storm like this, they'd probably dismiss him. Christ was not a milk toast. He said some hard things. Just read this chapter. He called those Pharisees and the leaders of the Jewish faith almost every name in the book. He calls them hypocrites. He calls them vipers. He calls them white in sepulchers, white on the outside and wicked on the inside. He called them people who devoured widows' houses, on and on all through this chapter. And then he concludes by pointing out How when God sent prophets in the Old Testament, the Jews often replied by killing them. And he said that God was going to require that generation what they had done against the prophets. And he finally concludes with lament. Verse thirty-seven to thirty-nine over Jerusalem, and he said, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you are not willing. See your house is left to you desolate, for I say to you, You shall see me nor till you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now the disciples thought that Christ was a little bit depressed and overdid it. And so when they were in Jerusalem there at the temple, It tells us in chapter twenty four verse one that they showed him the buildings of the temple. Now you remember when the pilgrims went back from the captivity in Babylon that they would struggle but eventually built a temple. It wasn't as good as Solomon's temple but at least a temple. But now that was more than five hundred years old and they needed a new temple. And Herod agreed to build them a new temple. In fact they started building it even long before Christ was born. And the temple is going up, and they built it out of huge blocks of stone that were quarried in Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem has a honeycomb of miles of tunnels underneath the city, where a rock has been cut out throughout the ages and taken for building purposes. And they've cut out huge rocks. We understand from secular sources that sometimes they had to ten, twenty, even thirty-ton rocks. And they get hundreds of men sometimes. and rollers and would put the huge stone on a roller. They'd roll it to the temple site, then they'd build an earthen ramp that would lead up to the place where the rock was supposed to be put, and they'd ease it up into place, didn't need any mortar, it was cut precisely the fit the particular place where it went. And of course this temple was being built for a permanent elephant. Rocks that are ten, fifteen, and twenty tons don't walk off. If they hadn't been disturbed by human hands, it'd still be there. You take the pyramids of Egypt, which were built about three thousand years before Christ, they were made of two and a half ton stones, and they're still there. The surface ones have been taken off because they were suitable for building, but the main structures of the pyramids are still there, and they'll be there probably as long as the earth lasts. And so the disciples were assured that the temple was assured, but Christ said to them, seeing these stones of the temple, he said, not one stone will be left upon another. This didn't fit their theology at all. How did that fit into a glorious kingdom, the temple being destroyed? And how could it be destroyed? How could these stones be left, not one stone upon another? And so they were very much disturbed by this. And then in verse three it tells us that when they crossed the brook, Peter and went out from the Mount of Olives, that four of the disciples, the famous quartet, Peter, Andrew, James, and John, came to Christ privately and said this, tell us. When will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? Now, by these things, they're referring to the destruction of the temple. And by the signs of your coming and the end of the age, it's the same question, because the end of the age will be the time of his coming. And they're talking about that. Now, Matthew's Gospel doesn't answer the first question. We have parallel passages in Mark and Luke, Luke twenty-one, that describe the terrible time when the temple was destroyed in AD seventy. And the Roman soldiers literally destroyed it and pried one stone off after another and cast it in the valley below. And they're excavating some of these stones now that were so cast down. And it was, of course, fulfilled precisely as Christ said. But the signs of it coming the end of the age is what Matthew deals with. And I want you to notice how Christ replies. Now, beginning in verse four, first of all, Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed. that no one deceive you. It seems that prophecy is especially an area where people are deceived. And the cults land upon prophecy and the teachers will go in various directions on prophecy. In fact, some people don't believe in prophecy because they say everybody's confused on the subject. Well, there's a lot of false prophecy, but there's also true. And that's what we have to discern in the Word of God. And then in verse five and following, he describes what's going to happen before Christ comes. Now, there are several approaches to this. Some people think this is entirely a description of the Great Tribulation, because these things will all be fulfilled in the Great Tribulation, which they will. And some think the first part of this chapter, from verse four to chapter seven or so, or eight, deals with the present age, and then it moves on to the end time. And in others, and this is where I come myself, I feel that the whole fourteen verses leading up to verse fifteen are all signs of advance, but not signs of the end. Now let's take a look at them and see what it says. Verse five. For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will deceive many. And of course, ever since Christ was on earth, we've had false Christ and false leaders. And that still continues today. People have claimed to be God. He said, you'll hear of wars and rumors of wars. Certainly there's been war somewhere ever since Christ was on earth. See that you're in not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. In other words, wars are not a sign of the end. For a nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrow. Now, these are the things that are going to characterize the whole age. And, of course, put yourself in Christ's place. How do you like to predict the next two thousand years? Any volunteers? Well, it's rather interesting that even the secular world is a little bit slow on this. They don't even want to predict ten years now, some of them, because they see we're living in such an uncertain world. There's so much that is happening every year that wasn't predicted. And so they don't know what the future is going to hold. But two thousand years? Well, that's what Christ did. And it's interesting that in these two thousand years exactly what he said is taking place. In other words, it has been false Christ. There have been wars and rumors of wars. There has been famine. We used to think that in our modern age that famine would be a thing of the past. There are millions of people dying every year now of famine. Well, there's enough food in portions of the world. Other portions of the world don't have enough food, and people are dying from lack of food. and pestilences. We used to think we had it all under control that modern medicine would conquer it. Now we're discovering all kinds of new viruses and so on. And what used to be like tuberculosis and some of these other things have developed new strains. The present medicines don't help. And of course we have the whole AIDS problem here. You see there's been pestilences and that has certainly continued to be fulfilled and people are dying of this. And there's earthquakes in various places. Now there's always been earthquakes, but you see with the growth of world population and large cities, earthquakes now are much more serious than it used to be because if earthquakes occur in the desert where no one lives, it doesn't cause much disturbance. But if it hits a city, that's an entirely different thing. My son was living in Pasadena a few years ago when they had that earthquake there, and every house for blocks around, lost their chimneys down to the roof lot. The earthquake just shook them loose, and they had to replace their chimneys. And, of course, some houses were also destroyed, but mostly the chimneys. And so there's earthquakes. And the Bible, of course, predicts that it's going to be even worse earthquakes in the future. And there are some that feel there are statistics that support the idea that earthquakes are increasing. At least they're more serious. Now, he says, this is just the beginning. There's something worse following. And then in verse nine, he said, then they'll deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you'll be hated by all nations for my name's sake. Now, of course, that was fulfilled even in the first century when the disciples were, most of them, if not all of them were martyred. And Christ himself, of course, was killed. And there had been martyred down through the centuries. A lot of people don't realize it, but in our twentieth century there's been more martyrs than any other century. There's literally millions of Christians that have been killed. The press simply doesn't record it. There's been hundreds of missionaries killed, natives and others. It's a terrible blight upon our world. The world has rejected the gospel and rejected Christ and rejected those who are represented. And they're going to kill you and be hated. And he said in verse ten, and then will many be offended. and will betray one another and will hate one another. Of course, particularly in communist China, that was the case. You would be betrayed by even your best friends and even your loved ones if you took a stand against communism. And there is no loyalty here that seems to prevent people from doing this. And they betray one another and hate one another. It characterizes our modern world. And then verse eleven, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. It seems in our age when there's so much that I think speaks of true fulfilled prophecy that there's just a growth of wrong prophecy. Book after book is written that just ignores the tales of the Bible and concocts its own program, and often they're wrong in many major areas. And it tells us that's going to be the case and right on to the end. And verse twelve, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. What about our churches today? Are they in a fervor of spiritual revival? Well, some are. I've been in several churches recently that really were a great blessing to me because they were so open to the truth of God. But there are so many churches where you wonder why the people go. The pastor doesn't preach the truth. The Bible is not expounded. They don't seem to have any Christian faith. And some of the denominational Churches even in Texas print right on their bulletin. They don't accept the whole Bible as the Word of God. There's departure from the faith and apostasy far greater than most Christians will recognize. And that's what it tells us here, that lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold. You see, if you have wrong doctrine, you aren't going to love the Lord like you should. And that, of course, characterizes our day. But then it says, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. Now, this is not talking about eternal security. The fact that a Christian once saved shall always be saved. This is talking about being alive. You see, it says that those who live through this period, in spite of all the persecution, will be delivered at the end. But there's going to be thousands of people that aren't going to be delivered. And we're going to see when we get into Revelation in our morning hours How terrible are the judgments that are going to come that are going to wipe out most of the world's population? That is, five billion in the world today or more. And most of them are going to be killed in a short period of time by one catastrophe after another. And that's what this is talking about. But if there is a Christian, and many of them will die as martyrs, in Revelation seven, we're going to see a picture of heaven when there's a multitude which can't be counted of every kindred tongue and people, people who are martyred. in this end time period for their faith in Christ. And they're going to be killed because of their faith. But if they live, they're going to be rescued at the end. That's what he's saying here. And then in verse fourteen, this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. Now this verse is puzzled people because it really is impossible to preach the gospel to every individual. We had in Texas back in the seventies a movement of they had eighty thousand young people meeting there for a week of convention and evangelism and they organized it and had gospel tracks and sent the young people throughout every house in Dallas either to give their personal testimony concerning salvation or to leave a track. Did everybody in Dallas get evangelized? No. There are thousands in Dallas that have never heard the gospel in spite of all these efforts, in spite of the radio, in spite of the television. And the gospel is preached in the papers and in magazines. You see, it simply isn't true. We can't reach everybody. But the gospel is going out over the whole world, and I forget now how many, about fifty languages now, the gospel is being broadcast on radio. And people are hearing the gospel that have never heard it before. And great areas of the world, like Southeastern Asia and Eastern Europe, Russia in particular, are now open to the gospel. It weren't a few years ago. The gospel is reaching out, and yet there are millions that aren't saved, haven't heard the gospel. Now, bear in mind, this is not talking about the rapture. It's talking about the second coming. Now, in the period immediately following the rapture, I believe there will be worldwide preaching of the gospel on a scale that perhaps we've never seen before. And this will tend to fulfill this prophecy. But all these things have to happen first. Now these are general signs. Now let's illustrate this. On occasion I've driven a car from Dallas to the west coast, we'll say Los Angeles. And some jokester put a big sign out just outside of Fort Worth saying Los Angeles city limits. Well, it happened to be a wrong sign, but Even that sign indicated, if you're going west, that there was some progress. And you'd go through Texas, and then you'd go through several other states, and finally you'd hit California. You'd keep on driving and see signs of progress. You're getting somewhere. And finally, you'd see the sign, Los Angeles city limits. And then you'd enter into the city. Well, that's the way prophecy is. Prophecy is being fulfilled. Now, all these things that he's mentioned here, are being fulfilled already today. These are prophecies in progress, as it were. But now he wants a specific sign, something that's absolutely clear as a sign of the second coming of Christ. None of these are specific. But beginning in verse fifteen, we have a picture of the particular sign that's going to happen. Now, to understand this, you have to put prophecy together here. and the way that perhaps you hadn't, but you have to reconstruct what the Bible says all the way through Scripture as to what's going to happen. Now, personally, I believe the rapture of the church is the next thing. And while Matthew doesn't mention it, because at this point it hadn't even been revealed to anyone. It wasn't revealed until Christ spoke of it in John XIV, the night before his crucifixion. But the rapture has to occur first. Now, when the Bible speaks of the end time and speaks of the rapture, It indicates also that something else is going to happen approximately the same time. And that's the revival of the Roman Empire. And we'll get into that perhaps a little more later. But it tells us that there's going to be a revival of ten countries. The Roman Empire was the great empire that was in power in the world in the time of Christ. It covered all of Southern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. It conquered Israel in Roman soldiers were there to assure the Roman power to collect taxes and enforce their laws. And the Roman Empire was in power, but the Roman Empire went out of existence. But the Bible indicates that it's going to be revived in the end time. In fact, Old Testament prophecies, when they prophesy the future, just skip our present age, the church age, and go from the time of Christ on earth to the end time as if there was no time in between. Now you'll find that especially in pastures that deal with the first and second coming, sometimes in the same verse. And that's why the Old Testament saints thought it was the same thing, because it was in the same context. But in between the first and the second coming is this whole present age. So the Old Testament doesn't recognize that the Roman Empire would go out of existence and be revived, but the New Testament makes it plain that it's going to be revived in the form of ten nations. That's taught specifically And Daniel seven, seven, and Daniel seven, twenty-four, the ten horns of the beast, which are declared to be ten kingdoms. Now that's going to occur approximately the time of the rapture of the church, either before or just after. Now when these ten nations get together on a voluntary basis, and of course Europe today is ripe for that, with the common market being there, then a ruler is going to emerge. who's going to gain control of three of those ten countries. Now, I believe this will happen after the rapture, not before, because it seems to indicate that he cannot be revealed till after the rapture in Second Testament in Chapter Two, and he will emerge and gain control of three. And then apparently all ten countries come under his sway, because after that, without explaining how, he's always pictured as the ruler of the ten countries in the Old Testament and also in the Book of Revelation. And they're going to support this ruler of Europe and of the Middle East. And when he gets to that position of power, the Bible indicates that he's going to make a seven-year peace covenant with Israel. And this is defined for us in Daniel nine, twenty-seven, which describes Israel's prophetic future. And it contains in that verse twenty-seven the last seven years of Israel's future that climaxes in the second coming of Christ. Now some try to find it in the past, but obviously the second coming hasn't occurred and it still has to be future because of particular things that it tells us about. And he's going to make a covenant peace with Israel for seven years. He's going to keep it for three and a half years and then suddenly overnight he gets such power politically that he is able to proclaim himself dictator over the whole world. And for the next three and a half years we have a world government. And he lies himself with Satan. He claims to be God. He demands that everybody worship him or be put to death. And it's a terrible time which Christ described as the great tribulation. Daniel uses the same expression. The book of Revelation uses it. A time of unprecedented trouble when there's going to be terrible things happening in the world. Now this ruler, of course, is going to try to kill everybody who's opposed to him. But because he's a blasphemer and a persecutor of Christians and Jews alike, God's going to pour out the terrible judgments we're going to see about in the book of Revelation and pour out on the earth this terrible time for three and a half years. And then it's going to come to its conclusion in the second coming of Christ with a war still underway. Now it tells us here that one of the things that's going to happen when this ruler takes over that last three and a half years, he's going to commit what's called here the abomination of desolation. It seems that in Scripture the Jews, that is Orthodox Jews, are going to build a new temple. Now, the temple was destroyed in AD. Seventy, but it tells us that it's going to be rebuilt, and they're going to attempt to reactivate the sacrificial system of Moses in the Old Testament. Now, of course, they're not Christians, but they're Orthodox Jews. They're trying to obey the law of the sacrifice. And apparently they're going to build a temple and install the sacrificial system. But then three and a half years before the second coming of Christ, this world ruler is going to step in and claim to be God, and he's going to stop the sacrifices, set up an idol of himself in the temple, and use it as a place of worship for himself. And, of course, that's going to occur on a specific day. And that's what we have here in verse fifteen. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place. Whoso reads, let him understand. Now this is not a vague prophecy. This is something that's going to happen on a given day. He's going to break the covenant. He's going to seek out Jews to destroy them. And so Christ gives them information to get away. He said, Verse sixteen. Then let those who were in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who was on the house stop not go down to take anything out of his house. Let him who was in the field not go back to get his clothes. Woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days. Pray that your flight may not be in the winter nor on the Sabbath. For then shall be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world, until this time no one ever shall be. Now put yourself in the place of the Jew here. Here's a Jew living in the area of Jerusalem. And the word comes that the dictator has broken his covenant with Israel, and he's now out to destroy the Jewish nation. And Christ tells them, flee to the mountains of Judea. Get away. Try to get away from your persecutors. And he says, let those who are in the house stop not go down through the house. You see, there are two ways that you go down outside stairway or go down inside stairway and pick up something on the way. He says, go down the outside stairway. Get away as fast as you can. And if you're in the field, don't go back to your home. Flee to the mountains. And then, of course, it's going to be especially difficult for those with child and those with small children. How can they escape and flee without food and without all the comforts of life? It's going to be a terrible time. And then he tells them not to flee and pray it might be in the winter because, of course, it's cold. Jerusalem sometimes has snow. It has some elevation. Or on the Sabbath. You see, on the Sabbath, people don't travel. And if they travel on the Sabbath, it would be obvious they were running away. So he tells them to pray it won't be on the Sabbath. And this is going to be the beginning of what Christ himself calls the great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world of this time, nor there ever shall be. Now the Jews have gone through terrible trial and trouble in time past. We've had, of course, the problems of Israel and Egypt and their attempt to decimate the nation Israel by killing all the male babies. And, of course, they didn't succeed, but they tried. And then we have the time in Esther when Haman issued an order that all the Jews should be killed. And of course he didn't succeed and lost his life in the process himself. And in the World War II period in Hitler we have some six million of Jews killed by Hitler and the terrible purge of the Jew in the areas which he conquered. And so we've had these terrible times of trouble for Israel. But we're told that this is worse than anything that ever happened before. And Zechariah thirteen-eight gives us a little indication of what this is going to be like, because it says that two out of three of the Jews in the land will die. Two-thirds. And you get over there and see these four or five million Jews that are there in Israel now. And they're very intelligent, very good-looking, well-educated, many of them. But not Christians. What a terrible time they're going to come when this occurs. And The great tribulation begins and they're not ready to live, not ready to die. And yet they lose their lives in this awful bloodbath. And so Christ predicts this. Now you see, what did they ask for? They said, what's the sign of your coming, the end of the age? And the general signs show progress, but not anything concrete. But when this great tribulation starts and the temple is destroyed and Jews start to be massacred, that is the beginning. That's the sign. That three and a half years later, Christ will come. Now, it's still not true. They can't know the day or the hour, as this passage tells us. But they will know approximately how long, and they'll know it's a temporary period of three and a half years. They can stay in hiding for that period. Then when Christ comes, they will have a chance to be rescued. There'll be great tribulations, such as has not been since the beginning of the world this time. No one or ever shall be. Well, in verse twenty one. has been characteristically ignored. Many books on prophecy picture the Great Tribulation as if it's here now, as if it applies to all the troubles that the human race has had in the past. That is not what this passage says. If you read it carefully, it says specifically, there's never been a time of trouble like this. It begins at a given time, three and a half years before the Second Coming, and it covers this awful period when the world is going to suffer as it's never suffered before. both from the persecutions of the world ruler and from the catastrophes that God brings on a Christ-rejecting world. And so this is the great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be. Now it says in verse twenty-two, unless those days should be shortened, no flesh could be saved. Now, I think that's a poor translation. The word for shortened means to be cut off like a scissors. If it weren't cut off, In other words, there's going to be an abrupt cutoff of this period. And the cutoff is going to be the second coming of Christ. And he said if he didn't cut it off and stop this awful period, there wouldn't be any human beings left in the world. Now, sometimes those that teach prophecy are declared to be a little sensational, you know. Try to be as sensational as that. This is Christ. He's not exaggerating. He's telling it exactly like it is. If it wasn't for the fact of the Second Coming and the stopping of this whole process that the Bible describes for the Great Tribulation, there wouldn't be anybody left. Now, it's not God's purpose to kill everybody because there's a millennial kingdom that follows. It should be populated by people on earth and they're going to be living in that future period if they're Christians. For the next sake, those days will be cut off, terminated, in other words. Then, if anyone says to you, look here is the Christ or there, do not believe it. Now there's going to be a lot of false predictions about Christ coming, then as now. And he says, don't believe it when they say that, for false Christ and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. And certainly that's true today. There's all kinds of false doctrine about prophecy being fulfilled when actually it's not. And here we have this mention. And he says, I've seen, I've told you, therefore, if they say to you, look, He is in the desert. He said, don't believe it. Or look, he is in the inner room. He's in some secret place. He said, don't believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the carcasses there the eagles will be gathered together. Now that's a sort of a proverb. It means that where there are dead carcasses, There will be vultures. And so here where there is judgment, where there is wickedness, there's going to be judgment. And the second coming of Christ is going to be a public event, as we see in the book of Revelation, as we saw this morning in our morning studies in Revelation. Every eye is going to see it. The whole world will know that Christ is coming. And if they're not saved, they're going to mourn because they aren't ready for it. And then in verse twenty nine it says immediately after the tribulation those days, In other words, when the tribulation has run its course, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its life, the stars will fall from heaven, the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heaven, then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming in plods of heaven with power and great glory. In other words, this is going to be the time of Christ's judgment. Now, why does the world mourn? Because they're unsaved. And it's going to be too late. There's a time when it's too late to trust Christ. And so it is going to be here. You know later on he uses a figure of Noah and Ark, but you know the point is that there comes a time when God warns what he's going to do, people don't pay any attention, and eventually the day comes. And it's not going to pass away until what has been promised has been fulfilled. During the Gulf War, there was a lot of talk about Armageddon, you remember. And because I'd written a book on Armageddon earlier, the press looked after it, called me up, and radio stations called me up to see what I had to say about it. And one of the radio stations it called up was a station north of Chicago, a Roman Catholic station. And they wanted to know if the Gulf War was Armageddon. I said, no. And then I proceeded to tell him what the Bible teaches about the great tribulation, the second coming of Christ, as something that's going to be still future. And he was horrified when I described the great tribulation. He said, can't we do something to stop it? I said, no, you can't stop it. When God says something's going to happen, it's going to happen. But I said, you don't have to be here when it happens, because if you're a Christian, you'll be raptured and be in heaven when this takes place. And then he allowed me on this Roman Catholic station five minutes to explain what I've been by being a Christian. Amazing. You couldn't have bought that time for some money. And here I got it for free. And I got the testimony out. You know it's amazing how the world will get the wrong picture, but once in a while they'll listen to you. And when you have something to say, they'll pay attention. And so he did there. And so there's going to be this time of judgment. And it says in verse thirty-one, he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other. Now the purpose of that is that they're going to be gathered. Those that are saved, both Jews and Gentiles, will be gathered at this time in order to enter his millennial kingdom. Now you see, this is what Christ is talking about, and the disciples that ask for signs. He gives them general signs, but then he gives them specific signs, and the specific signs is the great tribulation and then later at the end of the tribulation the glory of God in the heavens the lightning shining from the east to the west and Christ comes back to judge the world to bring in his kingdom to put down wickedness as we're going to see in many passages in the book of Revelation as well as here and conquer the world now the thing that interests me about this is that I believe that there's many evidences that were including close to this period after all almost two thousand years have passed since Christ spoke these words. And it seems that we're certainly two thousand years or so nearer the event than we were before. And there are very many evidences of these end-time events are about to take place, the rapture, and then these events that follow, including the Great Tribulation, and then the Great Climax when Christ comes back in heaven from heaven to earth and takes over and judges this present evil world. We're living in prophetic days. Now, why does God give us prophecy? He gives us prophecy to tell us what's going to happen in the future, and the purpose is so that we can get ready for the event before it happens. You see, when it's happening, it's too late. Now is the time we should respond and ask ourselves the question, are we born again? That's the bottom line, isn't it? People that aren't born again are not going to be saved. They're going to come under God's judgment. But if you're born again, you're going to be raptured in heaven, and you're going to be up there in heaven while these great events take place. And then when the second coming occurs, you're going to come back with Christ to the earth to reign with him for the thousand years on his millennial kingdom. You can see Christ is dealing here with the signs of his coming, the specific signs, the general signs, and certainly that's what's ahead for our world, possibly the very generation of which you and I are a part. I trust as we study prophecy, we'll ask not only the question, what does it mean, what does the Bible say, but we'll also ask the question, what should I do about it? And I believe we're living in prophetic days when we should maximize what we have for God and do all we can to further His work because we never know whether today might be the day when the Lord comes to take us home to heaven and our opportunities for service. will be forever over as far as this world is concerned. So I trust that you'll study this and read it and comprehend what God's word has to say about it. Now let's pray. Our Father, we thank thee for thy precious word and for the things that belong here that are a part of our expectation. Now wonderful it is to know that wicked as our world is that sooner or later God's going to deal with it in judgment as the Scriptures tell us. and how wonderful it is for to be a Christian, have your sins forgiven, and to know you're not going to be a part of that day of judgment, but you're going to be with the Lord, the recipients of His marvelous grace and loving care. And so speak to our hearts according to our need and if there's any response in our part that we should make in light of these prophecies. We pray that they'll help us to do it, for we ask in Christ's name. Amen.