Well, good morning. If you would,
turn your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 24. Matthew chapter 24. Before we
begin, let's bow before our Lord in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your matchless name. And Father, I pray that
you would give us the proper reverence of your name, that
you'd give us proper reverence as we bow before your throne
of grace. We bow in awe and wonder at your
love, your mercy, your grace, your pity towards sinful men
and women such as we are. Father, how thankful we are.
Cause us to live each moment, every day in each moment, in constant awe that you'd be
so merciful to people so sinful as we are. And Father, I beg
of you this morning as we look into your word that you would
enable us by thy spirit to see the Lord Jesus Christ, to not
get hung up on events and things that may happen, and set our
affection upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to be taken
up with him. that we see that Christ and Christ
only is the issue, the issue for our souls, the issue of our
day. Father, bless us. Bless us as
we look into your word. Bless our children's classes.
I pray you bless our teachers, that you enable them to teach
and that you enable our children to hear and that you would use
this time to plant the seeds of faith in their heart. Father,
we pray you'd show us your glory. in this dark, dark day, show
us your glory, redeeming and calling out your people, keeping
your people by the power of your mercy and your grace. All these
things we ask in that name, which is above every name, the name
of Christ, our savior. Amen. Now I've entitled our lesson
this morning, the prophecy of the end. And I want to remind
you before we begin looking at the scriptures, that this chapter
is just plumb full of prophecy. Some of it has already come to
pass. Some of it is still yet to come to pass in the future.
There are things in this chapter that are prophecies concerning
the judgment of Israel. All those things have already
come to pass. The destruction of Israel, the
Lord taking his presence away from them. There are prophecies
in this chapter concerning the second coming of Christ, concerning
the end of the world. Obviously those things have not
happened yet, And maybe after Christ returns, we have some
more light on these scriptures. We might see that actually there
are prophecies that refer to both at the same time. We'll
find out someday, won't we? But this morning, I want to look
at what the Lord has to say about the end of the world and His
second coming. Some of what the Lord is talking
about here does refer to the destruction of Israel, where
the Lord just destroyed that worship of God through the types
and ceremonies and pictures of the law. So that now we don't
worship God with those things. Now we worship God in spirit
and in truth. And all those things, the types,
the ceremonies, the pictures, the things that they had, those
things all serve their purpose. Those things we read about in
the Old Testament, the ceremonies and the stories and things that
we read I love to preach from those things because they're
pictures of Christ. But those things were just pictures.
That's all they were. God never saved his people by
the observance of those ceremonies, the keeping of those laws and
times and things. God's always saved his people
in Christ. But now that Christ has come
and he's offered the one sacrifice for sins forever, he's already
put away the sin of his people, but the person's come. We don't
need the pictures anymore. And God put those things away. God was always only worshipped
in Christ. Always and only that way. The
Lord just made it obvious to us he's done with those pictures.
When he destroyed Israel. He destroyed that whole Jewish
economy and he just made it obvious. He took the priesthood away.
He took the temple away. He scattered the Jews from Israel
showing us he's done with those things. He's done with those
things. or to look to Christ in Christ alone. And as we, some
of these things, like I said, they do refer to the destruction
of Israel. And at the same time, I think
it's pretty clear. They also are prophecies of the
end times. What will happen at the end,
right before Christ returns. And just before, one more reminder,
before we start looking at these verses, the Lord does not intend
for us to fully understand these prophecies. He does not certainly
fully intend for us to fully understand the events that will
happen right before Christ comes the second time. No man knows
that time. We're not going to be able to
figure it out. You know, we start seeing different events in the
world. Oh, this means Christ is coming. Well, probably not. And just don't get taken up on
trying to figure out when Christ is going to return. The Savior
himself told us, you're not going to figure out. No man knows it.
This is what we ought to focus on. It's not what's going to
happen in the future, when Christ is going to return. We don't
know that day. I mean, we may die before the
Lord may call us home before then, but the Lord has given
us today at me. So let's concentrate on today.
Let's concentrate on seeking Christ today. Let's concentrate
on worshiping him today. And you know, the Lord's not
telling us these things. Um, to use them like false prophets
use them to try to scare people. I mean, you've heard people in
false religion, the things that they talk about the Lord's second
coming, it'd scare you to death, doesn't it? The Lord's not telling
us these things to scare us. He's telling us these things
for our comfort. And I believe I can show you
that. Let's look at these verses and see if I can't show you that.
The Lord's telling us these things for our comfort. In verse, here's
the first line. point I want to make, don't be
deceived. Don't be deceived by false prophets.
Look at verse three. And as he sat upon the Mount
of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately saying, tell
us, when should these things be? And what shall be the sign
of thy coming and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered
and said unto them, take heed that no man deceive you. I think
it's just very interesting that the first thing the Lord said
in response to this question What are going to be the signs
of thy coming? When we're going to know the first thing he said
is don't be deceived by false prophets. That's very interesting
to me. Now, if a person is a false prophet,
obviously their message is false, right? But their message is false
on purpose. This is their, their, their actively
trying to deceive people and lead them away from the truth.
They're intentionally teaching people something that that's
not true. That's what the word deceived means. This thing's
intentional. So don't be deceived when these false prophets and
people talk about the end of the world and Christ returns
and it sounds so scary. Don't believe them. Don't be
deceived when people predict the Lord's return. I remember
when I was a young man, that fellow out there in California
kept Predicting dates, you know, so I mean not just times I'm
gonna talk about specific dates that Christ is gonna return and
I thought well this much I know I know Christ is coming, but
I promise you he's not coming on that day I mean whatever day
he's coming not gonna be that day because man can't know that
day. So don't be deceived about those
things Don't be deceived when people start talking about, you
know earthly events and there's all this is the sign of the Lord's
coming and They're either doing that because Satan's got a hold
of them or they're trying to draw attention to themselves.
Maybe they're trying to scare people into doing something.
And this I tell you, I tell you all the time, come to Christ.
Don't come to Christ because you're afraid that he's getting
ready to come any moment now and you better hurry up and make
a decision and get saved. Don't come to Christ because
you're afraid, oh, he's coming any minute. You come to Christ
because you're a sinner who needs a savior and do it right now. Come to Christ because you love
him and know him and you want to know him better. See, the
issue is not when will Christ return and when will the earth
be destroyed? We know that that's gonna happen.
The issue is who is coming. If you believe Christ and you
love Christ, You can't wait for him to come back. If you believe
Christ, you trust him, you love him, you're not scared of him
showing up. You're not afraid of him coming
again. You look forward to it, because when he comes, for those
that love him, for those that believe him, he's going to gather
them together to be with him where he is forever. Why you
got to be scared of that for? This is for our comfort. He's
coming. And don't you be deceived by these false prophets. Second,
don't be deceived when a false prophet tells you how to prepare
for the Lord's return. Don't be deceived when they tell
you when he's coming. And don't be deceived when they try to
tell you how to prepare for his coming. They'll tell you, you're
going to be judged by what you've done. And I'll tell you why they're
doing that. They're deceiving you on purpose,
remember. They're leading you away from the truth intentionally. They're trying to get you to
do something. They're trying to get you to
work hard in their religion and they're doing it by fear, trying
to scare people into working hard in their religion. Now,
I do agree that you will be judged by what you've done. I agree
with that. The false prophet just doesn't
know what that means. If you're outside of Christ, you're going
to be judged actually not by what you've done, but by what
you haven't done. People who go to hell are gonna
be judged by what they've not done. They've not believed Christ. That's the reason. They haven't
trusted him, haven't believed him. And if you don't trust Christ,
no amount of good works is gonna make up for that. The issue is
trusting Christ. That's the issue. And if you're
in Christ, well then you've done what he did. You've done what
the Lord Jesus did in those years of his earthly ministry. What did he do? He did perfect. He did perfection. He obeyed
the law perfectly. He pleased his father perfectly.
Well, if you're in Christ, you did too. That's what you have
done. Just as surely as you sinned in Adam, if you're in Christ,
you produced a perfect righteousness by your action, by your obedience
to the law and the person of your representative. Well, if
you're perfect in Christ, there's no reason to fear judgment, is
there? There's no reason to fear Christ coming back. See, the
Lord's telling us this for our comfort. Don't be deceived by
the message of false prophets when they try to scare you after
death. And second, don't be deceived by false Christs. He says here
in verse five, for many shall come in my name, saying I am
Christ, and shall deceive many. You know, there have been many
men who claimed to be Christ, Jesus Christ, in the flesh. Many
men have claimed that. Maybe the most recent was David
Koresh, the Branch Davidians. He actually claimed to be Jesus
in the flesh here on earth again. Now don't be deceived. I mean,
I know, I very seriously doubt anybody here was ever deceived
by that, but don't be deceived by that. Christ came to earth
one time. He came as a servant once. One time he came as a servant.
And when he came, he got the job done. He did everything that
the Father gave him to do perfectly, so there's no more work left
for him to do. There's no need for him to come in the flesh
as a servant again. He's already established a perfect
righteousness for his people. He doesn't need to do that again.
He's already offered the one sacrifice for sins forever that
put away the sin of his people, paid the debt in full, and made
them sanctified by his one offering for them. There's no need for
him to come as a servant and offer that sacrifice again. None
of that work ever needs to be done again. The only reason Lord's
come back again is to gather his people, to take them to be
with him and to judge the earth, to destroy this earth and get
rid of it and create a new one wherein dwells righteousness,
a place for his people to be eternally. And Christ doesn't
need to come again in the flesh to try to draw followers to himself.
He uses his preachers. He uses his preachers to preach
Christ, and that's what draws God's people to him. It's not
being a religious nut in this cult and trying to draw people
by your personality and your charisma. The one thing that
draws all of God's people to Christ is the preaching of Christ. I had lunch yesterday with Pastor
Fred Evans and we were talking about this issue. You just constantly,
constantly, constantly preach Christ. And Fred made this statement. He said, eventually what's going
to happen is the sheep are going to hear that and say, Oh, there
he is. I know him. There he is. I know him. They'll be drawn
to him. They'll be drawn to him. So don't be deceived by these
fellas. And don't be deceived by the gospel, by the Christ
that they preach. The Jesus that they're preaching
is what the Apostle Paul called another Jesus. Just because they
use the name Jesus, it's just because they use the name Christ.
Just because they talk about grace and blood and mercy and
sacrifice, that doesn't mean they're preaching the gospel.
They're preaching another Jesus. Now don't you trust him. Don't
you fall for him. Any savior, who wants to save
and can't unless you let him, unless you make a decision, unless
you do something, is a false Christ. Don't believe it. Don't look and say that's him. That's not him. Any Savior that
wants to do something, but your will overrides his will is not
Christ. It's not the Savior. Don't you
fall for it. Any Savior who cannot do with you as he will, save
you or damn you. Any Savior that cannot do with
you as he will is not Christ, is not the Savior. Any Savior
who does not leave you begging at his feet, falling at his feet
and begging him for mercy is not the Savior. And don't you
fall for it. Don't you listen to him. It's
a false Christ. Somebody is preaching intentionally
to lead you away from the true Savior. Don't be deceived. But here's something else, don't
be discouraged. Don't be discouraged when you
see these false gospels, these false prophets prosper, these
false Christ preach. Don't be discouraged. The Savior
said it must happen. They must be preached. These
men must come before Christ comes again. And unfortunately, many
people are gonna be deceived by it. But here's the comfort. You can be thankful God's sheep
won't be deceived. They're not going to be deceived. They're
not going to be led away from Christ because the savior is
going to keep him by the power of his grace, by the power of
his words. So don't be deceived and don't
be discouraged when you see these things must happen before Christ
returns. All right. Number three, don't
be deceived by the events of providence. Verse six, and you
should hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you'd be not
troubled. For all things must come to pass,
but the end is not yet. For nations shall rise against
nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there should be famines,
and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places. All these
are the beginning of sorrows. Now you know this to be true.
Every time a new war breaks out, particularly if one breaks out
in the Middle East, people automatically think this is the end, don't
they? I was just an infant. I think
it was the Six Days War or something. One of those, you know, it broke
out in the Middle East. And boy, all kinds of people,
you know, were thinking, oh, this is it. The rapture's going
to be any second. Well, here we are 57 years later,
you know. I didn't exactly look this up,
but I'm almost certain that this is true. There has been war,
but somewhere on this planet, every single day that I've been
alive. So the next time a new war starts,
don't think, Oh, this is Gog and Magog and then, you know,
going to destroy the world. Maybe, maybe not. I don't know. The
Lord says here, these are the beginning of sorrows, the beginning
of sorrows. The same thing applies with natural
disasters. There's been natural disasters.
There's been drought, there's been disease, there's been starvation
back to the oldest recorded history. You know, God sent an earthquake
to finish destroying the temple about 300 years after the Savior
ascended back on high. Now you think, wow, an earthquake
destroying the temple. Oh, that's gotta be a sign that
Christ is returning in just any moment, right? That's 2000 years
ago. Those things are not, there's
no indication that the Lord's coming again. Those things have
been going on in nature from the very moment that Adam sinned.
You know what we call natural disasters. You know what those
are? You know, earthquakes and hurricanes and tornadoes and
mudslides and all these things. Well, we call natural disasters.
You know what that is? All that is, is the earth groaning
and travailing together in pain, waiting for the manifestation
of the sons of God, waiting for Christ to return. When Adam sinned,
He put a curse on the ground, didn't he? He put a curse on
this earth. And this tells you something
about the weight of sin. How big is this plan? I mean, just
think what that thing has to be able to sustain. And it groans
under the weight of sin. That tells me we ought to groan
more too, huh? We just have no concept of the
great weight of sin that the Savior has delivered us from.
And as the creation continues to groan under the weight of
sin, it's just groaning and waiting. It's not a sign that Christ is
coming back immediately. I tell you the war and the destruction
that we should be concerned with is a spiritual one. Unearthly
one a spiritual one. I wonder how many people are
so caught up with this with this war, you know over there and
You know with that Russia's just inflicting, you know upon the
world how many people are so concerned with that and Absolutely,
no concern whatsoever this morning for the spiritual warfare for
their souls That's a pretty high number There's
a war going on that Satan has waged against God. Adam joined
in it. When Adam took that fruit, it was rebellion against God.
He declared war on God. Now, we know how this war is
going to end up, don't we? We know who's already won the
war, but that doesn't mean it's not very serious. This thing about your soul is
very serious. As I prepare messages, And I
get up here to preach the gospel to you. I try not to do it like
a college lecture or something, you know. A math instruction, how you might,
you know, get somebody to learn what 2x squared plus 4 equals
z. I mean, this is contending for
your soul. It's contending for Christ. It's
contending for the truth of Christ, that you see him and believe
him. And I know Christ is the mighty conqueror. That's the
Savior we declare, the mighty conqueror who will not be defeated,
who cannot be defeated, whose will shall be done. He shall
save his people from their sin. And we don't need to worry about
the outcome of the war, but we need to treat it serious. We
need to treat it very seriously. I know how the war's going to
end up. I know that. But we need to keep looking to Christ. We
need to keep looking to Christ. And I tell you what, he, he is
going to bring this thing to an end. When all of his people
have been saved, he's going to bring it to an end. Not one of
them be lost. He won't come a moment too early so that he loses one
of his people and he won't come a moment too late so that he
loses one of his people either. He's coming. We just need to
keep looking to him. All right, number four, don't be deceived
by the persecution and hatred of the world. Verse nine. Then
shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill
you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my namesake.
And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another,
and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall
arise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold. Now, you know, those things did
happen Israel you know people were killed they they betrayed
one another that I mean the horrible things that happened there Fox's
Book of Martyrs is full of people that suffered these kinds of
things What happened again for the for Christ returns? I don't
know if he waits very long probably will and the human nature being
what it is unless the Lord restrains it You know those things will
probably happen again But you know nobody likes to be persecuted
do they nobody likes to to be hated, it doesn't feel good.
And you know, we know that this, the world, our Savior said, the
world's gonna hate you. It hated me, so it's gonna hate
you. And I know that the world's gonna
hate God's people, but you know, I don't wanna be a jerk and bring
that hatred upon myself. I mean, just say, well, I know
everybody's gonna hate me, I'm gonna act like a jerk. You know, it's just
no badge of honor for everybody to hate you because you're a
jerk. Cause it's just, you're just hard to be around. I'll
tell you this. I don't want to, I don't want
to be hated. I certainly don't want to bring it upon myself,
but I'm just fine being hated for Christ's sake. When he said
it hates me, so it'll hate you. I'm just fine if they hate me
for Christ's sake. I'm just fine if somebody hates me cause I
won't compromise the gospel. You know, I'm fine with that.
I mean, I don't really like it, but I'm fine with it. I won't
compromise the gospel to get somebody's friendship. But you
have to hate me because they hate Christ and they don't know
him. I'll be all right with that. But you know, the worst thing,
the thing that hurts the worst is apostasy. And that's what
the Lord's talking about here in verse 12 because iniquity
shall abound. The love of many shall wax cold.
People that used to act like their friends, your friends,
suddenly they hate you. Suddenly they're persecuting
you. Suddenly they're saying you don't believe the gospel.
That hurts worse than the hatred of the world. I understand the
hatred of the world. But somebody that claims to be
a believer, or used to claim to be a believer, now they believe
something else and they hate you. Sucks all the air out of the
room, doesn't it? I mean, it's just so sad, and it just hurts worse. But now, don't be discouraged
when that happens. Don't be discouraged. I was thinking
yesterday, all the times, just in my lifetime, I'm not talking
about the history of the world. Just in my lifetime, how many
times I've seen that happen. So don't be discouraged. Hate
it, but don't be discouraged when it happens. Cause look at
the book of first Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter 11. You know, these things happen.
Don't think, Oh, you know, something, something has happened outside
of God's will. Something's happened outside
of God's purpose. God couldn't have willed this what's going
on. Don't, don't be deceived by that because it hasn't. First
Corinthians 11 verse 19. For there must be also heresies
among you, among you, from those that are with you, heresies among
you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. Heresies and divisions must happen
so that true faith is revealed. That's what Paul's saying there.
So don't be deceived, don't be discouraged by these things.
There's gonna be false prophets and false gospels that seem to
prosper for a while, they'll deceive many. The Lord said that
they will. There's gonna be many painful
effects of sin in this life, from ourselves, from people around
us, from nature, from the creation groaning under the weight of
sin. There's gonna be apostasy, where people used to claim to
believe the gospel, now they believe something else. But I'm
telling you, now here's our comfort. I don't care what it is, all
those events that will happen, how, just how horrible that they'll
be. If there's, if there's persecution
like what's gone on in the history of the world, no, no matter how
horrible that it is, no matter what happens between this second
and the end of the world, when Christ returns, not one of God's
people will ever perish. not one of them will ever fall
away. Every last one of them shall
persevere to the end. Verse 13, but he that shall endure
unto the end, the same shall be saved. All of God's people,
every one of them will endure to the end. You know, they say
that Job was the first book of the Bible that was ever written.
So if it's the oldest writing that we have in the Bible, this
is what Job said. The righteous also shall hold
his way. Still true today. The righteous
will hold his way. The righteous will stay the course.
The righteous will not quit trusting Christ. You know why? Christ won't let them quit. That's
why. The elect will be saved. They'll be saved by the power
and grace of God. And they're going to be kept.
by that same power and that same grace. God's not gonna let them
go. You know, the scripture is plain
that only those that persevere into the end will enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Well, God's people will persevere because
God will preserve them. That's why, the reason, you know,
we claim to be Calvinist, you know, T-U-L-I-P, that P stands
for the perseverance of the saints. You know why the saints will
persevere? because God will preserve them. He'll preserve them. The
sheep, they will persevere. The sheep will not be lost because
the great shepherd won't let them. He's gonna find every one
of them, every one of them he'll put on his shoulder, and every
one of them he's gonna take to the fold. Every one of them.
So until the end comes, God's gonna keep saving his people.
God's gonna keep his people, comfort his people, instruct
them, keep them, by the power of the preaching of the gospel.
Verse 14, and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
in all the world for a witness unto all nations and then shall
the end come. I don't know when the end of
the earth will be. I don't know when my time on
earth will be done. I mean, you know, it almost really
doesn't matter when the end of the earth was going to be. The
Lord's going to call me on first. I don't know. I don't know when
those things will be. But I do know this. I do know what I'm
supposed to do today. I do know. Sometimes the way
of the ministry and the importance of preaching the gospel, the
importance of this on souls of people becomes so evident and
so great. Jane will ask me every once in
a while, Frank Tate, what are you doing? And this is my answer
every single time. What God put to my hand today.
I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't know
what the effect of all this is going to be tomorrow. But this
is what God has given us to do today. Right now. Believe the
gospel. Preach the gospel to our generation.
I don't know when the end of the earth is going to be, but
I do know what the church is going to be doing until then.
Preaching Christ. Preaching the gospel. Our function
on this planet, as long as God gives us breath, the function
of this body is to preach the gospel so that God's elect will
be saved, so that God's sheep will be fed, so they'll be instructed,
so they'll be comforted. And I'm thankful to report that
God says that preaching of Christ will never be in vain. You're
never failing when you preach Christ. So let's not worry about
when the end will come. Let's not worry about all the
events that are going to take place between now and the end.
Let's focus on what God's given us to do today. Here's what God's
given to us to put to our hand to do today. Preach the gospel,
believe the gospel. Then let's do with all our might
until the Lord calls us off the battlefield. All right, I hope
that'll be a help and a comfort to you. And next time you hear
somebody talking about the end of the world, you don't have
to get scared to death, but be comforted by this, all right?
Lord bless you.