Matthew 24. Go to Matthew 24. Brother Gabe asked me what I
was preaching on tonight. And I said I'm preaching on the
end of the world. And he laughed. A joyful laughter. Like, great. Only a believer
can do that. Only a believer, one who loves
the Lord, truly looks forward to the end of the world, because
the end of the world is His coming, is Christ's coming. The sun is shining today. The
sky is blue. It's a beautiful day, isn't it? A good day to talk about the
end of the world. Our Lord said, at a time when you think not,
at a time when you think not, He shall come. Look at verses
1 through 3 with me. Matthew 24, Jesus went out and
departed from the temple and His disciples came to Him, for
to show Him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto
them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, there
shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be
thrown down and then they they left and he began to walk up
to the Mount of Olives in verse 3 as he sat upon the Mount of
Olives disciples came unto him privately no more multitude around
him and saying tell us When shall these things be? What shall be
the sign of thy coming and of the end of the world?" After telling his disciples,
after gently rebuking them for being so impressed with the buildings
of the temple and all these temporal things, he said, see not all
these things. Don't you see these things for
what they are? Temporal the things that are
seen are temporal the things that are not seen are eternal
We're told to set our affection on things above things not seen
But he gently rebuked them and after telling them that there
would be not be one stone left Standing on another that all
would be thrown down nothing left standing Then he says no
more and he walks off And he begins to walk up that
mountain and sat on the Mount of Olives where he was want to
resort so often with his disciples. And they began to think, they
were thinking about it on the way up there. And they came to
him privately. And I imagine they were a little
concerned. He just told them that the world was coming to
an end. And that's all he said. And they're not knowing anything
else. When or what? And they came to
him privately and said, would you tell us? And he began to
tell them. He began to tell them this time.
The end of the world is not a thing to be feared. The Lord was always
allaying his disciples' fears, was he not? Always. He was constantly
telling them, fear not, wasn't he? Like us, they were afraid
of so many things. All that they saw and all that
they heard around them and all that was taking place in that violent world, perilous times
they lived in. They were afraid and the Lord
was constantly allaying their fears, wasn't he? Telling them,
fear not, be not afraid. One time they were in a ship,
remember, and the ship was tossed everywhere and the Lord came
walking to them on the water and they were afraid and it says
they thought they saw a spirit, didn't they? I thought they saw
a spirit, a ghost. That's what mariners are prone
to do, aren't they, when they're out to sea for a long time. I
thought they saw a ghost. And he said, it is I. Be not afraid. And when he got
in the boat, he said, why do thoughts arise in your heart?
Why are you always thinking the worst? Anybody? We always think the worst, don't
we? Oh, no. He said, it is I. Whatever it is, it is I. Isn't that what Eli said? It
is the Lord, whatever it may be. That's the only thing that
will allay our fears, isn't it? of the unknown. Nothing is unknown
to him because he's the first cause of all things. But the
return of our Lord and the end of the world is not a thing to
be feared or dreaded for those who know the Lord. Paul wrote
of those who love his appearing But it's a thing to be desired.
It's those who wait for him and love his appearing. When he appears,
there's not going to be a moment's fear or trepidation. There's
not going to be a moment's heart. The world, their heart's going
to fail them. But not God's people. There's
going to be joy unspeakable and full of glory when He comes.
Like the bride waiting on the bridegroom. You ladies, do you
remember waiting on your day, your wedding day? Were you dreading
it? Don't be honest. Don't be too honest. But no,
seriously, if you loved that man, you couldn't wait, could
you? And you were counting the days
until that time, weren't you? You were marking them off. Well,
this is the bridegroom and the call is going to come. Behold,
the bridegroom cometh and the bride is not going to fear him
coming. They're looking forward to his
coming. It's not a thing to be feared at all for those who love
him. It's a wedding day. I love, we, me and I love these
girls so much and I think, I know they love us and they look forward
to our coming. They love our appearing and every
time they hear that we're coming, they're waiting on us in the
yard. Today, they were both waiting out in front of the yard for
us to come and when they saw us coming, they began to wave.
They're here. And when Christ comes, for those
who love His appearing, it's going to be that way for them.
And people, someone might say, we don't need to try to scare
our kids about the end of the world. Are you kidding? All they hear
today? All they see today? Even the
little video games and things they play? Apocalyptic things
that they look at and see all around them? Isn't this just
the place to talk about the end of the world? Isn't this the
place that they should hear about this from the mouth of our Lord
Himself and see what He says about it? Because if He puts
His fear in their hearts, they need not fear anyone or anything
from then on. Look at Isaiah 8 with me, Isaiah
chapter 8. If the Lord puts his fear in
us, we need not fear anyone or anything. The Lord rebuked Isaiah
for this. Who are thou that you should
be afraid of a man and not afraid of me? More afraid of men than
me. That's unbelief, isn't it? Isaiah 8, look at this. Verse
11, well, all through here they take counsel together. He said,
it will come to naught. Verse 11, he spake to me with
a strong hand. Did your dad ever lay his hand
on you and say, listen son, just listen to me? The Lord laid his
hand and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people
saying to me, say not a confederacy, don't join up with them. All
them whom this people say a confederacy, neither fear ye their fear, nor
be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself. Let it be established in your
heart. May this be truly, may settle
you. The Lord that we preach, that
we believe is apart from, different than. the Jesus they preach today,
the God being preached today. He's the Lord of hosts. He really
is Lord. He's not a figurehead. He's the
absolute sovereign Lord of everyone and everything. Let Him be your
fear and let Him be your dread. And if He is, He'll be a sanctuary
and a stone of stumbling for somebody, a sanctuary. The very
one you fear is the one you run to in your fears. So I'm not, we're not, we don't
want to scare our children, no, no, no. But we need to hear what
our Lord says about this. And he says much. All right,
go back to the text. He says much about this. We just
started looking at this together in Rocky Mount, Matthew 24. And chapter 25 is many parables
about his, about the end, end of the world. Many talk about
it, don't they? Many people like to talk about
it that really don't believe it's going to happen. Their secret
thought, David said, is that they shall live forever. Many
talk about it. Movies are made about it. Books
are written about it. Seminars, you know, Jehovah's
Witnesses, so-called, like to talk about it, and they get many
big crowds. If we had announced today, or
been announcing all week, that we're going to preach tonight
on the end of the world, we would have had to rent the Renaissance
Center, wouldn't we? No doubt about it. No doubt about it. That's what people are interested
in. In fact, like Sermon Audio, you're on Sermon Audio, we are
too, that if you put a catchy title to your message, you put
a catchy title, you'll get more downloads that way. So our purpose
is to try not to do that. But if you announce anything
that has to do with the last days, the end of the world, you'll
get a lot of people looking at that. Recently we preached on
Christ is all. Now that's the gospel. That's
all our hope. That's salvation in three words.
Anybody that really is interested in salvation, those three words
are precious to them. Christ is all. Did we get many
downloads? Not interested. People are more interested in
the end times prophecy than they are in Christ who's coming. They're
more interested in the signs of Christ's coming than the Christ
who's coming. Most even don't know why he came
the first time. They're not interested. But they're
sure interested in the signs and times and the prophecy. When
what Christ did when he came here, why he came the first time
is his glory. And that's the theme of the song
of all of God's people throughout eternity. Unto Him who loved
us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. Christ and
Him crucified. That's why He came the first
time. He came to put away the sins of His people. That's His
glory. His glory was that He left the Father's throne to come
to this place to put away the sins of His people. To be made
sin for them. That's His chief glory. and very
few people except his people are interested in that. And the scripture said they'll
look on him whom they pierced and wail because of him, but
we shall look on him whom we have pierced with great hope
and joy. Now this was to his disciples.
They came to him privately. This was to his disciples, and
they asked him privately. If you want a private hearing
from the Lord, He'll talk to you. If you want to hear from
Him, He'll speak to you. And this is for us who love His
appearing. And there's so much in this chapter,
but the Lord doesn't say anything for information. In fact, He
doesn't give any dates. He doesn't give any real particular
times. He does say something about Daniel.
Go back and read that, about Daniel, about the number of weeks
and so forth. But the Lord does not give any
times, does He? Any days. In fact, He said one
time, it's not for you to know. He said, no man knoweth the day
or the hour, didn't He? So the moment that any man stands
up and tells everyone that Christ is coming at such and such a
day, mark him off immediately as a false prophet. He's calling
Christ a liar. Not long ago, there was a nationwide
campaign put out by a family radio in California. That Christ
was coming May something, this was four or five years ago. Did
you see those signs? May something or other, 2007
or whatever. You know immediately that's false.
Our Lord said, No man knows you. He doesn't give any particular.
He doesn't give dates or times and all that. What the Lord is
saying to His disciples and saying to us, He's saying, number one,
to warn them about all these false prophets. He gives many
warnings about all these false prophets. And secondly, to comfort
His people in knowing that whatever comes to pass, you're going to
hear of wars and rumors of war. No matter what comes to pass,
be not troubled. Don't be troubled. Didn't he say to them one time,
he said, all things are delivered unto me of the Father. Be not
troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. He believed God,
believe also in me. He's given all things into my
hand. Be of good cheer, he said. I've overcome the world. The
world's under my feet. The world's in my hands. I'm
controlling this world. So he says these things in this
chapter to warn us as a safeguard. Look at verse 5. Verse 5, he
says, Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall
deceive many. Can a man stand up and say Jesus
is the Christ and be a false prophet? That's what he just
said, isn't it? Isn't that what he just said? He sure can. They said, is Saul
among the prophets? Is Saul prophesying? Balaam? Have you read Balaam? What he
wrote? Judas? Nobody suspected Judas, did they? They went out by twos. Another
disciple went with Judas. They didn't suspect a thing.
He was preaching doctrine right now, I'm not going to lie. Or else they would have gone
to the Lord and said, Lord, you can't believe what he said. Is it possible? Of course it
is. Our Lord said, many shall say. Mindy and I were in a motel
room going somewhere, and she was getting ready in the bathroom,
and I was flipping through the TV, and it said Billy Graham
Crusades. Classics. Classics. And I began
to watch one of them back in 1958, I believe it was. I couldn't
believe what I was hearing. I said, Mindy, come in here.
You've got to hear this. And it was incredible, wasn't it?
We couldn't believe it. Right down the line. I'm telling
you. It was right down the line. Of course, in the end, he left
it up to man, didn't he? In the end. Why does, why is
that? How can that be? How can a man
stand up and tell the truth and he'd be false? To make everyone
accountable for that truth. Paul said, have they not all
heard? Yes, barely. The sound has gone everywhere.
To make everyone accountable, even the man who said it. He
said to Pilate one time, Pilate said, art thou the Christ? He
said, you said it. The word just came out of your
mouth. No mouth condemned. What is truth? You're looking
at it. Many, he said. Verse 24, many. And so a man's doctrine can be
right down the line. There's a man we know well. Verse 24, there shall arise false
Christs, false prophets shall show great signs and wonders
in so much that if it were possible they'll deceive the very elect.
That's pretty close, isn't it? Aren't you glad it's not possible?
Our Lord said, My sheep hear my voice. A stranger's voice
they won't find. And he's warning us, verse 25,
I've told you before. So he warns us as a safeguard
against false prophets. And I've had people say this
to me many times. Well, he says some good things. Yeah, even Balaam could do that.
But our Lord said of the false prophets in Jeremiah 23, He said,
they'll not prophet this people at all. Not at all. And He tells us these things
for our comfort. Whatever it is, it is He. Whatever
comes to pass, He reigns over all. All things are under His
sovereign direction and His purpose. Alright, look at every line.
Every line is significant. Verse 1, Jesus went out and departed
from the temple. Jesus went out and departed from
the temple. How prophetic is that? Listen
to me now. Jesus the man departed from that
earthly physical temple the first time he went in that temple.
What did he do? Planted a whip and cleaned it out Condemned
it what was going on there said you've just a den of thieves
and he planted a whip and cleaned it out The next time he came
he came and he's preaching there and he went out and he departed
and he will never return there again That's the last time I'll
ever be seen in that temple And he told them, this place is coming
down. There's not going to be one stone
left standing on another. But one stone will be left standing
when it's all over. The headstone, the top stone,
the stone which the builders has rejected. And he said, you
tear down this temple and I'll raise it again in three days.
But this physical temple, this temporal temple, everything,
is coming down and there will be one stone left standing. That
rock which is Christ Jesus. The only one. And there's not
going to be another temple built. Everybody's waiting for that,
aren't they? They're waiting on the dome of the rock to be
torn down. Everybody's waiting for that.
When our Lord plainly said, The kingdom of heaven cometh not
with observation, He said, if they say, here he is, don't listen
to them. He said, the kingdom of heaven
is spiritual. The kingdom of heaven is within
you. And if you'll notice, if you
read this, there's not one mention, the Lord does not mention one
time some cataclysmic battle to end all battles. That they're
all going to gather in a valley over there and they're all going
to fight. And according to the religion
today and most people, that's the battle to end all battle.
People, I'm here to tell you, the battle that ended all battles
took place at Calvary. That's when the kings of this
earth and the rulers of this world and Satan, the principalities
and powers, gathered together to make war on the Lamb. And
Chris, the Lamb, slew them all. The Lamb defeated them all. Comfort
ye my people. There's not going to be a battle.
Don't worry about that. Don't fear their fear. Tell them
the warfare is accomplished. Their iniquity is pardoned. They
made war with the Lamb and He overcame them by His own blood.
And Satan is under His feet. Don't fear their fear. Did not
he plainly say, if my kingdom were of this world, my servants
would fight? Who's going to be fighting over
there? What are they fighting about? A piece of land? We're looking for another piece
of land, aren't we? It's not going to be a temple. Who's the
temple of God? You are. Joshua of old, when
Moses left the tabernacle of old, Moses left the tabernacle
and came out, it says Joshua stayed there. He stood right
there. He never left. And our Joshua,
the Lord Jesus Christ, never leaves his true temple. He left
this one and never going back. He's going to tear it down and
never going to build another. And people are looking for him
to go and sit on a throne in the temple and them to sacrifice. Sacrifice it? He offered one
sacrifice forever, and there's not going to be any more sacrifice.
Don't need to. No temple going to be built.
The Lord has been building His temple, and it's a spiritual
one, and here it is. And we labor together with Him. spiritual temple. His people
in whom he never leaves. He left this temple. Jesus, the
man, left this temple. They saw a man walk out of this
building and leave this temple and they saw a man hanging on
that cross. And that's who people are looking
to come back to. Jesus, the man. And oh, are men
and women in for a rude awakening. And oh, are His people in for
a glorious, joyous experience. There's a sign. on a so-called
church down the road from us that says Jesus is coming back.
On both sides of the sign, Jesus is coming back, Jesus is coming
back. No, he's not. The Lord Jesus is coming back.
Jesus, the man. And this is what Paul, or Hebrew,
whoever wrote Hebrew, said, we see Jesus. It made him a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. A man, God
became a man. Why? For the suffering of death. To live according to the law,
the second Adam from above came to establish a perfect righteousness
for his people as a man. A man has glorified God. But
we see him, the next time we see him, he's going to be crowned
with glory and honor. And every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess at the name of Jesus, they're going to call
him Lord. Yes, we see him. We saw a man
named Jesus. It's like Joseph of old. When
his brethren put him in a pit with no water, and then the Midianites came
and took him away. The last time they saw him was
in a pit, a 17 year old boy. The next time they see him, they're
trembling in their boots. sitting on a throne, and they're
in His hands. And He makes them realize who
He is. They begin to fear Him. He first talks rough to them,
doesn't He? through an interpreter, mind you. And they began to fear
him. And they began to mourn over
their sin and say, it's because we rejected our brother. That's
right. And God at the point of the day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man who him hath ordained.
This Jesus, Peter preached at Pentecost, you have taken with
wicked hands and crucified. But God set him on the throne
and made him Lord. And everybody said, oh, what
are we going to do? Here's it. Repent and be baptized. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ask him for mercy. He's merciful and he'll have
mercy on you. The Lord Jesus Christ, coming
in power and glory and judgment. He's not coming to build anything.
He's coming to destroy everything. He came the first time to do
the building. He came the first time to do the saving. come in
a second time to end all of this and take his people home. His
disciples were still ignorant, weren't they? Verse 2, they were
impressed with those buildings. They were impressed with those
buildings. Imagine this, them showing the Lord who made the
heavens and the earth, those buildings. Say, look, would you
look at this? Look how high this temple is. He who set the stars
in the sky, and the sun, and the moon, and the star. He who
put Mount Everest on its foundation. Look at that temple, Lord. He that sits in the heavens laughs.
And he says to them, and he says to us, and do you not get aggravated
at yourself sometimes by being taken up with these things, vanity? And what he said here was, see
ye not all these things? Don't you see these things for
what they are? How could you be impressed with
these things? Isn't that us? Isn't that us? Every one of us. How do you act
when some famous person is in the room or some star or whatever? How do you act? Be honest. These people are nothing to nobody. See ye not all these things?
See ye not all these people? Should we not be more impressed
with what the Lord has done? We take for granted the most
glorious things in the universe. The sun comes up every day. The
heavens declare His glory. The firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day others speak. The sun comes up without which
we could not live. The Son, the glorious Son, which
is a picture of Christ who is the Son of Righteousness with
healing in His wings. Yet we take that for granted.
That's a pretty Sun set, isn't it? Well, did you look at that
car? Aren't we foolish? The mountains,
the trees clapped their hands. Didn't he say in Isaiah 1, An ox knows his owner, an ass
his master's crib, but my people don't know, they don't consider
the Creator. Very few people even believe
that God created this world, certainly don't believe Jesus
Christ did. Oh, we do, don't we? We do. Clouds are the dust
of His feet, the trees clap their hands to their Creator, the birds
are singing His Lord. Well, we say, look at that, look
at them, seeing out all these things. Not one stone will be
left standing upon another. Nothing shall last. Everything
shall be shaken, he said, and only that which cannot be shaken
shall stand. So he went up the Mount of Olives,
and let's just look through here real briefly, and I'll quit.
Tell us when these things shall be. And the Lord said, Take heed,
no man shall deceive you. Many shall come in my name, saying,
I am the Christ. I shall deceive many. and you
shall hear wars and rumors of wars, see that you be not troubled."
Wars and rumors of war. Everyone's worried about terrorism,
aren't they? Terrorism. I'll tell you a true story. David,
who is a type of Christ. Christ is called the son of David,
is he not? Nearly every story of David is
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. One time David came back to the
town he was living in, Ziklag. And the Amalekites had taken
his wives and all that he owned, kept it. And David went after them. And
they were all, the Amalekites had David's wives and his children
and all these things that belonged to David. And they were having
a big old party and they were drinking and making merry and
all that, not knowing that David's looking down on them. He's come
to get his wives back. And these people don't know it. At any rate, it says that David
recovered all. He smote all the Amalekites and
took all of his wives and all his children and everything.
He didn't lose one thing. David recovered it all. And it says the only ones that
escaped of all those people that killed Amalekites were 400 young
men on camels. And somebody said, we need to
go get those fellows. 400 men on camels? You going
to worry about 400 men on camels? You worried about the Islamic
State? 400 men on camels? Seriously. I kill, the Lord said. I make
life. I create peace. I make evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. I am the Lord. That is my name.
Don't fear their fear. You trust me. You need not fear
anything. Disciples had no fear as long
as they were with the Lord. They did great exploit. Be not
troubled. He said constantly, you're going
to hear of wars and rumors of war. See that you be not troubled. All these things must come to
pass, but the end's not yet. Nations will rise against nation,
kingdom against kingdom, be famines and pestilence, earthquakes in
diverse places. These are the beginning of sorrows,
but listen to this. He tells them, verse 9, they
shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you, and you shall
be hated of all nations for my namesake. But one other time
he said, not a hair of your heads will fall to the ground. It's
not going to happen unless I say so. I've been reading about the Scottish
covenanters who were burned at the stake, and had their heads
cut off, and their hands cut off, and all these things, all
these martyrs, Fox's Book of Martyrs. and reading about them,
going to the dead, and you won't find one of them afraid. You'll
find them all preaching the gospel as they went. Why? The Lord was
with them. Why? He said, I'll never leave
you, nor forsake you. Why? Because His grace is sufficient. His people, wouldn't it be a
wonderful thing to die for your Lord? I've denied Him enough
like Peter. Wouldn't you love to finally? And they all did, and the Lord
was with them. We've been very protected, very sheltered in
this country. And up until a few hundred years
ago, all of our brethren previously to us, a great cloud of witnesses
laid down their lives. Read Hebrews 12, 11. Don't fear. He said, be not afraid. Be of good comfort. Be of good
cheer. Be this eye. I own this world,
Christ said. That's what he's saying. You
don't need to fear anything. but me." Read on. He said, Many will be
offended and shall betray one another, hate one another. Many
false prophets shall arise and deceive many, but they won't
deceive you. And iniquity shall abound. The
love of many shall wax cold. Why is Paul called the last days
such perilous time? Why are they called perilous
time? 2nd Timothy 3. He didn't mention one single
act of violence in that chapter. Not one. When he talked about
perilous times, he didn't mention one single act of violence. What
he did say was men should be lovers of self, lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God. Heady, high-minded, proud, boasters,
unthankful, truth-breaker, incontinent, fierce, yeah, but no acts of
violence yet. Why are these perilous times
as in the days of Noah? eating and drinking, buying and
selling, building, and so forth. Nothing to worry about. And they
say, Peace and safety, our Lord, then shall sudden destruction
come on you. And they knew not till the flood took them away,
as in the days of Noah, as in the days of Lot. But we need not fear. Iniquity
shall abound without natural affection. The love of many shall
wax cold. But he, here it is, here's my
closing verses, verses 13 and 14. But he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved. What is that? That means you keep on keeping
on, you pray through. Oh, no, no, no. It is He that holds steadfast
to the end, His compassion. When you came, when you heard
the gospel, when the Lord revealed Himself to you, revealed the
gospel of Christ and Him crucified to you, how did you come? You
came as a sinner, helpless, hopeless, guilty, vile, helpless, weak. Spotless Lamb of God was He. And you heard this gospel. and
you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, he that
believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved from everything. Saved, need not fear. Let us
hold fast the beginning of our confidence, steadfast to the
end, for he is faithful. He that endures, that is, here
is what overcomes the world, is our faith in Christ. Looking
to him, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom,
Now he's going to pronounce the end. When you hear and see this
gospel of the kingdom preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations, then shall the end come. Then. And that's a summary of it all.
That's it. No particulars. And he starts,
Brother Dwight, he starts from there and goes over it again.
He just repeats himself. When you see this gospel preached
all over the world, know that the end has come. It's here. Now, do you not see the signs
of the time? Do we not see? We're not in darkness
even as others. He's at the door. When has the
gospel been preached in every nation until now? This little
church, our little flock, is heard in nations all over the
world, aren't they? And our Lord said that. When
you hear this, know that He's near. Then the end shall come.
But it's not a thing to be dreaded. It's a thing to be looked forward
to. That's when He's coming. And we read there in 2 Thessalonians
2, comfort one another with these words. They said, brethren, In
a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the dead shall rise and
will be changed into his likeness and Christ shall come, will meet
the Lord in the air and he'll bring everybody with him and
comfort one another with these words. Lord, look what's happening. Fear not, fear not. Okay, may
the Lord bless that.