The Great Signs of the End Part II Matthew 24:1-51

Now, we have been in Matthew for over two years now. And two weeks ago, when

I was last here, we started our journey through one of the most interesting chapters in the whole

Bible, Matthew 24. Matthew 24 is known academically as the

Olivet Discourse. But in common terms, it's known as the end times according to Jesus.

I have titled this long sermon through Matthew 24 the great signs of the end.

What I pointed out two weeks ago is that the key verse in understanding this chapter is verse 8.

Verse 8 says, all these, referring to the signs, are but the beginning of the birth pains.

What I explained two weeks ago is that Jesus compares the signs of the end to the experience of a woman in pregnancy.

Now, there are many women in this room who have been pregnant, and you know what birth pains are all about.

Pregnant women have contractions throughout their pregnancy, but the contractions increase in frequency and intensity as the birth nears.

Jesus says this is how it is with the signs of the end of the world. As this world nears closer to the end, the signs increase in frequency and intensity.

As we near the return of Christ, this world will be chaos as the signs happen frequently and also occur in their fullest form.

What we are going to see as we continue this chapter is all the signs that Jesus described.

He has nine total signs in this chapter. Now, before we jump in to start looking at these signs, let me give you the big idea and the first two points that we saw two weeks ago.

You can see this in the bulletin. So, here's our big idea. Very simply, anticipate the soon return of Christ.

And thus far, we have seen two practices how. Throughout this sermon in chapter 24, we're going to see 15 practices how.

Okay, so we're just getting started here. But for the first practice how, you are to anticipate Christ's soon return is through looking at prophetic certainty through what has already been fulfilled.

What we saw two weeks ago is that Jesus predicted to His disciples that the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed.

And we know that it was destroyed in 70 A .D. And it was destroyed exactly how

Jesus said it would be destroyed. It was not left one stone upon another.

This is the wonder of prophecy. God, through His prophets, makes predictions and then these predictions come to pass exactly how the prophets said they would come to pass.

We can see prophecy fulfilled in the past and we can be certain that everything the

Bible says that has yet to be fulfilled will be fulfilled in the future. What we also saw two weeks ago is the second practice how.

You are to anticipate the soon return of Christ and that is through taking seriously why

Jesus provides end times details. He doesn't have to give us signs concerning the end.

But He does. It is common in our day to hear people say the signs don't matter.

I hear it all the time. What matters, they say, is just living a godly life. But what people often miss is that the major reason

Jesus gives us signs is so that His people would long for Him and follow

Him that much more closely. As we see the signs of the end increasing in frequency and magnitude, we know that His return is that much closer.

As Christ followers witness these signs happening in the world, it is intended to give us urgency in holiness of life, in prayer, in evangelism, and missions.

Now at this time, let's start looking at these signs. So I encourage you to turn in the Bible looking at Matthew chapter 24. We are going to look at two signs in points three and four.

And here's the first sign that Jesus gives. So anticipate the soon return of Christ. And the third practice how, but it's the first sign, but it's the third practice how you're gonna anticipate

His return. The third practice how is watching out for the appearance of many false prophets.

Watching out for the appearance of many false prophets. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna begin by reading verses four and five.

And Jesus answered them, His disciples, see that no one leads you astray.

For many will come in my name saying, I am the Christ and they will lead many.

But I will not lead you astray. What we know as followers of Christ is that Jesus is the

Christ. But many have made the claim that they are the Christ.

And just to remind you, the word Christ is a New Testament way of saying

Messiah. And Messiah is the Old Testament way. What it means is anointed one.

It's this man, this Savior, this King who is going to rule the world.

Some Jewish historians estimate that in ancient times there were approximately 64 false messiahs.

It's the people who come on the scene. They tell the Jewish people, I'm the one you've been waiting for.

I'm the one predicted in the Old Testament. 64 false messiahs in ancient times.

The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that there were an increase in messiahs during the

Jewish revolt, which I mentioned two weeks ago, led to the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem by the

Romans in 70 AD. 60 years after this period, another messianic pretender arose.

His name was Simon Bar Kochba. What is interesting is that the rabbi most regarded at this time,

Rabbi Akiba, told the people that Bar Kochba was the messiah. But just like what happened in 70

AD, his revolt was also crushed by the Romans and the Jewish people were once again devastated.

Because remember, they had this understanding. Messiah is going to come, drive out our enemies, he's going to reign, we're going to reign with him.

And then these people come on the scene saying they're the messiah. And then guess what happens? They get crushed.

Not the messiah. False messiahs were not only there around and after the time of Jesus, but false messiahs were also present throughout history and will only increase preceding the second coming of Christ.

And we need to understand this. What Jesus says is beware of these people.

Down in verses 23 -26 of this chapter, he tells his disciples and all the readers of this chapter what these false

Christs are going to do. Let's look down to verses 23 -26 of chapter 24.

Then if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or there he is, do not believe it.

For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

See, I have told you beforehand. So if they say to you, look, he is in the wilderness, do not go out.

If they say, look, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe it. So these messianic pretenders are not just frauds claiming to be the

Christ. These are frauds with Satan's backing. These are people who do miraculous works from the power of Satan.

We talked about this a little bit in Sunday School today. We talked about the supernatural. The supernatural is something that's out of the ordinary.

Things that we do not see on a day -to -day basis. We don't see people rising from the dead. We don't see people walking on water.

We don't see people turning water into wine. Satan has the power to do certain things.

And so sometimes someone could come on the scene and have power, and it doesn't come from God.

It comes from Satan. And this is what they say when these people come.

They say, look, here's the Christ, or there he is. And as verse 26 says, look, he is in the wilderness.

He is in the inner rooms. But Jesus says, do not go searching and do not believe it.

One sign we will see a few weeks from now is that the return of Christ is not hidden.

If people say he is in this location, that's not true. What we will see

Jesus say in a later sign is that everyone on planet Earth will know about his return.

As lightning flashes in the east, as visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the

Son of Man. Now, when will this happen? As I have mentioned, there were false

Christs in the first century. There were false Christs down through history.

But there will be a multitude of false Christs immediately preceding

Christ's return. What we must understand about Jews is that they believe that the

Messiah is coming to this world. And they do not believe that Jesus is that Messiah.

It's very interesting that we're talking about this because tomorrow at 10 o 'clock, Mark, Keith and I are going to meet with a missionary to the

Jews. And he serves the Twin Cities. There's 60 ,000 Jews.

People who believe the very thing I just told you. They don't believe that Jesus is the Christ, but they believe that there is a

Christ who is going to come and he is going to reign in the future. So, when people are saying, look, here's the

Christ, or there he is. These are Jewish people longing to see their

Messiah. They're waiting for him to come. When is he going to come and deliver us from the plight that we have?

And think about the plight that the Jewish people have had down through the centuries. The Holocaust is the most recent edition.

But you go back to Antiochus Epiphanes before the time of Christ. What happened to the

Jews? We looked at the Jewish revolt of 70 AD. Down through history, the Jews have just been treated horribly.

And they no longer want to be trampled on. They want to be reigning with their king.

And this is why we should have a strong heart for the Jewish people. Not only because God has predicted that they will return to him in the future, but think about the suffering that they have endured over the years.

They are God's chosen people. They were God's chosen people before the church was

God's chosen people. That's why when Paul writes in Romans 1 .16, he says the gospel is first for the

Jews and then for the Gentiles. So we are a church that has a big heart for the

Jews because God has a big heart for them and He will bring them to salvation in the future.

Before the end of the world, there's going to be this mass conversion of Jews. And these are the ones

Jesus has chiefly in mind as He warns about false Christs. As many

Jews believe in Jesus, they will be tempted to believe these false claims that the Christ has appeared like many of the unbelieving

Jews will claim. They're going to say, He's here. But there's going to be

Jews that have already believed in Christ because there's going to be a lot of Jews who are going to believe in Jesus in the tribulation period.

These unbelieving Jews are going to tell Him, He's here. And they're going to have doubts. Well, maybe we believed in the wrong

Messiah. And Jesus tells them, don't believe it. Don't believe it.

I am the Messiah. I am the one predicted in the Old Testament. I am the one who's going to reign forever.

They will look persuasive, as He says in verse 24. These false Christs, they will perform great signs and wonders.

They're going to do miracles. They're going to be able to do things that none of us can do because they're going to have the power of Satan behind them.

They will be effective at this, as Jesus says in verse 11, they will lead many astray.

But He says in verse 25, see, I have told you beforehand. He is warning them and He says, do not be fooled.

Jesus is indeed the Christ and His return will not be hidden. When He returns, everybody is going to know about it.

And as we talk about false Christs and false prophets, there will be one false prophet who will be greater in power and influence than all the others.

And he is described in Revelation 13. In fact, I'm going to read this to you.

Revelation 13 verses one through five. And I saw a beast rising out of the sea.

Actually, sorry, 11 through 15, not one through five. That's the first beast. Let's read the second beast.

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence. It makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose mortal wound was healed.

It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people.

And by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

We'll stop right there. This false prophet, the greatest false prophet in world history will be different from false

Christ. The false Christ that Jesus has described, the false messiahs he's described. Because the false

Christ will deceive the unbelieving Jews. While this false prophet will primarily deceive the whole world to follow after him and to follow after the one world ruler at that time known as the

Antichrist or the first beast. He will be an ecumenical leader.

Does that sound familiar? Have you ever seen those bumper stickers that say co -exist? That's ecumenicism, okay?

Can't we all just get along? Are there really any differences between Christianity and Islam and Christianity and Hinduism and Buddhism?

Is there really any difference? Aren't they all just about being a good person? I mean, that's kind of the emphasis of this movement.

Beware of ecumenical movements. They're not from God. Okay, let me be very clear about that.

Because God is always of the truth. We want to love people of other religions.

We want to invite them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because only he, only through him will one receive entrance to heaven.

This false prophet will be the religious leader of a one world religion.

What is interesting is that when you look at all the religions in the world, they do have differences, yes.

But fundamentally, they're all really the same. Satan's creative, but he can only be so creative.

Every false religion in the world is built on a works righteousness system. What this means is that the only way you can earn your way to heaven is through your own good works.

And if the good outweighs the bad, you will go to heaven where your God dwells.

But biblical Christianity is different. We talk about the Reformation.

This is what the Reformation fought over. You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

That's the Reformation. And they were fighting against the Roman Catholic Church, which taught you are saved by grace, through faith plus works.

So the corrupt Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages really became just like any other false religion.

And the same thing happened before Christ came in the Old Testament.

Because you have Abraham and Moses and David and Jeremiah and Isaiah and all these devout

Jews who believed the same way Abraham did, that you're saved by grace through faith alone.

And then what happened after the prophets spoke is that this works righteousness system snuck in to Judaism, so that when

Jesus comes on the scene in the first century, the Jewish religion, the

Old Testament religion, was corrupted. This is what happens over time.

Eventually, sinful humanity turns the true religion into corruption, into a works righteousness system that's no different from Islam, that's no different from Hinduism, that's no different from Buddhism, that's no different from Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons.

Some of you have seen the Jehovah's Witnesses on the overlook in St. Croix Falls. They think you need to earn your way to heaven.

Every false religion teaches this. They're all works righteousness systems and they all have the same author,

Satan. What the final false prophet is going to do is he is going to bring all of these false religions together and the goal will be to get all of them to worship the beast.

And who's behind the beast? Satan. What we see is that the false prophet who rises up will do mighty works, as Matthew 24, verse 24 said he would, and he will do this from the power of Satan and he will call the whole world to worship the beast.

In Revelation 13, that's what he's called. The final one world ruler is the world leader who is possessed by Satan.

So at the end of the day, Satan is worshiped. Understand this. The goal of every false prophet and false religion is for Satan to get people to leave the one true

God to follow after him. This is the desire that he has had ever since he rebelled against God and was banished from heaven.

He doesn't want God to be worshipped. He wants to be worshipped. And he's done this throughout the ages and the effort to get people to worship him will increase significantly right before the end.

I once had a professor in seminary. I've always thought that Satan thinks he's going to lose, that he's just given his best effort and he thinks he's going to lose.

But I remember I said that to one of my professors. He's like, he doesn't think he's going to lose. He thinks he's going to win.

It's irrational. How can you beat God? But when you're that sinful, reason has left a long time ago.

Think about that. He wants to be worshipped. That's the goal of everything he does.

He hates God. He loves himself. He wants to be worshipped. And the final seven year tribulation will be a time of great apostasy as verse five and 11 say, as these false prophets inspired by Satan will lead many astray.

In our world today, we already see the activity of Satan. People every day are leaving the faith to follow him, whether they know they are following him or not.

An atheist is ultimately following him. They wouldn't see it that way, but they are.

Satan, however, leaving the truth and following falsehood is seductive. He has a high success rate of deceiving people.

Once again, verse 11 says that many are led astray. The message of falsehood and works of false teachers from Satan is so successful that as this text says, it even attracts believers to a certain extent.

This is one of the most interesting things. Look at verse 24. For false

Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

Who are the elect? Believers. What does this mean?

What Jesus is saying is that these false messiahs and false prophets will lead many astray.

They will be master deceivers and they can even do supernatural works through the power of Satan.

They are those whose words and works are so enticing that if the elect are not careful, they too will be enticed by them.

This is important to understand. Satan will not be able to deceive the elect because as Jesus says, that's not possible.

He says, if possible, they will deceive the elect, but it's not possible based on what the rest of the

Bible says. Scripture teaches that everyone who knows Christ and has the

Holy Spirit dwelling within cannot leave Christ to go one's own way or to follow a false prophet.

Don't trust yourself to keep yourself in the faith. You would fail. Linda and I were talking about that today, this morning.

And in fact, why am I still here? Why am I still following Jesus?

Because I belong to God. And you know what John 10, verse 27 and 28 says?

My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Is there a more precious verse? Though Satan can't take you from his hand, the world can't take you from his hand.

And most importantly, you can't take yourself from his hand if you belong to him.

But the deceptive power of these false priests, false prophets, and the final false prophet will be so powerful that many will be seduced and devoured by them.

And we see this as believers. Sometimes we see something, we're enticed toward it. Christians can struggle with worldliness, we're enticed by it.

But at the end of the day, Christ is your Lord and your allegiance is to him.

And you will say, no, I will not follow him. The thing about these false prophets too, they don't come with horns and a pitchfork.

They will come as those who say they are truly following God. The apostle

Paul said it would be this way. 2 Corinthians 11 verses 13 through 15, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

That's what false teachers do. They don't present themselves as evil.

They present themselves as good. But you know where they are by whether or not they say the truth.

If they say Jesus is not the only way, you have a false prophet. Doesn't matter how nice they are.

Because they're doing the devil's work. Earlier in Matthew 7 .15,

Jesus said, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

So they look like sheep. On first appearance, they blend in.

But there's a problem. Upon further investigation, you find out, wait, this person's a serious problem.

They're wolves. And we know how ferocious wolves are. They devour people.

Masses of people see their winsomeness and apparent righteousness, and some are enticed, but believers will never be enticed.

So one of the clear marks of the return of Christ is the presence of false teachers and false

Christ. False Christ, mostly to the Jews. False teachers and false prophets, mostly to the

Gentiles. And these false messengers will only increase at the end of the world, immediately preceding

Christ's return. And how do we know that? Because verse eight tells us that. These are but the beginning of birth pains.

They increase over time in frequency and intensity.

So we should expect to see more of these as time goes on. And I tell you what, we do see a lot. Most of these

Christian bookstores have these people in the bookstores, even. And it's frightening. False teachers everywhere.

And that tells us we're that much closer to the return of Christ. So anticipate the soon return of Christ.

And the third practice how is through watching out for the appearance of many false prophets.

The third practice how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ is through observing an increasing number of global wars.

Okay, we're gonna switch gears here a little bit from the previous topic. So we see the rise of false prophets, false

Christ, and now Jesus gives us the second sign that his return is getting closer.

In verses six and the beginning of verse seven, he says, and you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.

See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. It will stop right there.

One evidence that Christ's return is drawing closer is the manifestation of wars.

In the first century, the war nearest to the disciples was the Jewish revolt. I said two weeks ago that an estimated one million

Jews were killed by the Romans when they rebelled against the Romans. That was just the beginning to fulfill

Jesus' words about the future. Down through history, there have been countless wars.

The Roman Empire, as the world knew it, came to an end when Germanic tribes invaded it in the fifth century

BC. Emperor Romulus Augustulus was removed and there has never been a

Roman emperor from Rome again. During the Middle Ages, there were two empires in what we call modern day

Europe. In the East, it was known as the Byzantine Empire and in the

West, starting in the 10th century, it was known as the Holy Roman Empire. I once had a professor who said, it wasn't holy, it wasn't

Roman, and it wasn't an empire, but they call it the Holy Roman Empire. The Roman Catholic Church really ran this area.

The Pope had more power than even the kings. There was a saying, he who does not have the church as his mother does not have

God as his father. So the Pope could excommunicate the king. So really, the

Pope had more power than anybody in this part of the world at this time. So the king had to be on his best behavior.

In the Middle Ages, the biggest war was started and directed by the Roman Catholic Church and this was the

Crusades. The Crusades took place because Muslims took over the Holy Land and the

Roman Catholic Church believed Jerusalem and the surrounding area should be under the rule of Christians.

This war intermittently lasted almost 200 years from 1095 to 1291

AD. What also took place in the Middle Ages was the Mongol conquest of China.

This conquest spanned six decades in the 13th century and is the second bloodiest war in human history.

Then you move to the period beyond the Middle Ages known as the Reformation period. The Reformation started in 1517 but after the

Reformation, what happened was there were wars because at this time in world history, there was not a separation of church and state.

So there were wars between the Roman Catholic regions of Europe and the Protestant regions of Europe.

And these wars were called the European Wars of Religion and they occurred from 1618 to 1683.

And then over a century later were the Napoleonic Wars that took place from 1803 to 1815 and that was led by, of course, the great general

Napoleon. But the true greatest wars in the history of the world hit very close to home.

World War I, also known as the Great War, and World War II. These two grand wars took place in the 20th century.

World War I was fought from 1914 to 1918. This was supposed to be the war to end all wars but the people who said this were not paying attention to the

Bible knowing that humans cannot end all wars. Only God can do that.

World War I was called a World War because it involved much of the continent of Europe, the

United States, and Canada. World War I was the largest war the world had ever seen but it would be trumped only two decades later by a war that was even bigger and that's

World War II. World War II started in 1939 and ended in 1945.

And the regions that fought, some of the same ones from World War I, actually many of the same ones, but then you add the

Soviet Union and then you add Japan. And this was by far the largest war in world history in size and destruction.

Over 70 million people died from a war that only lasted six years.

And we must remember what Jesus said in verse eight of our chapter, the signs of his return are like birth pains.

So wars happen down through history and we see the two biggest wars in the history of the world that happened in the 20th century with World War I and World War II.

And as the sermon is preached, there is a war going on in Eastern Europe in Ukraine.

And there are also rumors of wars. Jesus says that. There's wars and there's rumors of wars.

Wars always start out with rumors. As Jesus says in verse six, a nation gets instigated and eventually they enter the war.

And what happens is nation rises against nation and kingdom against kingdom. As Jesus says at the beginning of verse seven, last

February, when Russia invaded Ukraine, we hear all the time about wars and rumors of wars.

Throughout the war, we have heard of rumors about nuclear warheads going up. Some wonder if Vladimir Putin is

Gog, the Gog of Ezekiel chapter 38.

I heard one Christian geopolitical expert say, we don't know if Putin is Gog, but he would be a good candidate.

There are talks of China joining Russia and China invading Taiwan. There's also concern that communist

China will be the new superpower in the world. And it won't take much since they own much of the world.

They own much of our country. It has been 77 years since the end of World War II.

And it may be that the next world war, World War III, will usher in the end of the world.

And it may be that this final war starts with Gog and Magog and concludes with the great battle

Armageddon. Armageddon, which is described in Revelation. It's the great final battle.

Revelation 16 describes demonic activity, enticing kings all over the world to descend on Israel.

And Revelation 16, 16 says, they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called

Armageddon. All of these kings will be under the king of the world at this time.

And the king of the world at this time is the Antichrist. The beast. Revelation 16 verses 12 through 16 describes their submission to the

Antichrist, the kings of the world at this time. These kings who march toward Israel are marching there to oppose the mass conversion of believers in this area, many of whom are

Jews, who have been supernaturally preserved by the Lord. And what's interesting is that even over the last several weeks, the

Bible says that the Euphrates River is going to dry up and these armies from the east are going to march over the

Euphrates and they're going to descend on Israel. Over the last few weeks, guess what river has dried up?

The Euphrates River. Now, it might fill up again, but what it shows is this is going to happen, okay?

Understand that rivers drying up is not some crazy thing. That does happen.

And it will happen when the armies of the east travel west toward Jerusalem.

Now, where Armageddon is going to take place is Mount Megiddo. This is located 60 miles north of Jerusalem and this future war will take place in the plains of this location.

I mentioned Napoleon earlier. He once went to this battlefield and he said it's the greatest battlefield on planet

Earth. And the carnage from this battle,

Armageddon, will stretch for about 200 miles, as Revelation 14 .20 tells us.

This battle will end when Christ himself descends from heaven and destroys the

Antichrist and his armies. All the wars in history are leading up to this war.

The wars down through history are like birth pains. They increase in frequency and intensity as time goes on.

Jesus told us it would be this way and this is how world history has played out. The greatest war in world history will be this final war that ends with Christ destroying the one world ruler and his false prophet.

And everything happening in the world right now is setting up this one final kingdom.

This one final opposition to Christ. And if we're paying attention close enough, we can see all of this setting up before our eyes.

We can see the agenda that's setting up. Towards this one world religion, both on the secular government side and the religious side.

There's this ecumenic movement that's out there. By the way, the Pope is a part of this. I mean, you see him.

He's telling atheists they're not going to go to hell as long as they're good people. He did that.

He's supposed to be a Roman Catholic. Roman Catholicism doesn't teach that.

It's interesting, I was talking to a Roman Catholic a while back. I said, what do you think of the Pope? He said he doesn't like him.

Good, that's a Roman Catholic with integrity. He's right. The present

Pope is a part of this globalistic, Marxist movement that is moving towards this final one world religion.

It's not going to take much to get there, okay? It's all setting up before our eyes.

Let's not be naive to say it's not there. Let's not be naive to say that everything is just going to get better. Now, we could delay things for some time as righteousness prevails, but it's going to happen.

It has to happen. And when it happens, nobody should be surprised.

We should be able to say, yes, we saw this leading up the whole time. So, birth pains.

Birth pains are happening. We see it with false prophets and false Christs.

The increase of them, the amount of them. It's only going up. And then we see also wars and rumors of wars.

Jesus said it would be this way as he's talking about his return. And we should have our heads straightened up, the scripture says, prepare ourselves because it's coming.

And it's important for you to say this too. I believe what scripture teaches is that we will be raptured.

We will be taken from this earth before the final seven -year tribulation.

So, if the war of Gog and Magog starts before the tribulation, we might see some of that, but we won't see the great

Armageddon battle. But it's still good for us to know about that and how encouraging it is to believe in the rapture that he is going to take us before things get really, really bad.

And as we go through this chapter 24, we're going to see some really dark things. And if you're visiting, you might think, man, these guys are doom and gloom.

But this is what the Bible teaches. And we're just going through Matthew, by the way. It's not like I'm selecting where we're going.

We're in Matthew. We're in Matthew 24. So, we're talking about it. And it's a reminder that it will end and we see the birth pains rising up.

And the most important thing we can tell anyone is find your refuge in Jesus Christ. Because he's coming back and we much urge everyone, he paid the full penalty for your sins.

He rose gloriously from the dead and one day he will reign. Okay, so those are the third and fourth practices how you are to anticipate the soon return of Christ.

And two Sundays from now, we're going to see five and a couple other points.

And just to give you a little preview, we'll see the rise in natural disasters. That's another sign that Jesus gives.

But next Sunday, we're going to have a special sermon. I'm going to preach a sermon on the harvest since it's the harvest service.

So, I look forward to preaching that and seeing all of you then. But let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father in heaven, it is a sobering topic as we, anytime we talk about the end of the world.

And the Bible talks a lot about it. So, we should pay attention to it. And as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, we should see the value in studying the end times.

It should make us holier. It should make us more urgent. It should make us love people more.

And so, as we go through this journey through Matthew 24, I pray that that would come out of us.

That we'd be holier people. More urgent people as a result of looking at this.

And Lord, if anyone here has never put their trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation, for the forgiveness of their sins, my prayer is that that person would understand that Jesus is the only

Savior and that He went to the cross on a rescue mission to save sinners.

And then on the third day, He rose from the dead and He will come again. My prayer is that everyone in this room would believe that.