 Let's begin reading here in Mark chapter 13. I'll begin at verse 24. I'll read to verse 27 and we'll be looking at the second coming. Now I'm going to prepare you. I should say this before we even start. I've got a whole lot of scripture that I'm going to be reading to you. I hope you can speed right if you'd like. But you know, I just wanted to put together a lot of verses and so you'll see that I'll be reading an awful lot of scripture to you just to give you the context of what we're looking at and to see what it means. So beginning at verse 24, reading to verse 27, Mark chapter 13, but in those days after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars of heaven will fall and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory and then he will send his angels and gather together his elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. And so what I'm going to do is what I normally do is I'm going to give you a foundation, a reminder. So those of you who've been with us through the studies, that'll help you to remember the things we've already looked at. And for those who are watching here online or are here for the first time, it'll give you a little context by which you can understand the portion of scripture that we're looking at today. See at this point in chapter 13, as you begin in verse 1 and get to this place, we've come to the end of this period called the tribulation. Now the tribulation is a seven-year period of judgment. It's a time that God pours out his wrath on this rebellious world. And there are various reasons and purposes of the tribulation. Let me give you a couple of them. First, the tribulation is to judge all who have rejected God and his Messiah, Jesus Christ. You see, instead of worshiping God, the world will reject him and will worship one who is referred to in scripture by a variety of names including the Antichrist. In Revelation 13, verse 8, it reads, All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. So the world will wonder after this one who's called Antichrist also is known as the lawless one, also known as the beast in various other names. All the inhabitants of the Bible says of the earth will worship this beast. So the rejection of God in acceptance of Antichrist is going to result in their judgment. During the tribulation, God is judging. He's judging the world for their godlessness. And the key feature of this time is deception. Now I mentioned that when Jesus was asked by his men about the sign of his return, they had said in Matthew 24, verse 3, When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? And I mentioned to you that the answer is in reference to the sign is a singular word. What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered that the primary sign would be false teachers. The primary sign is deception because in Matthew 24, 4 and 5, Jesus answered and said to them, Take heed. In other words, you have personal responsibility. Take heed that no one deceives you for many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will deceive many. Now there are essentials of Christian faith that all believers embrace. You know, there are quite a number of people who will say, Well, I'm a Christian. Well, you can say you're a Christian. It's easy to say that I said that prior to coming to faith in Christ. If you were to ask me what I was, what is my religious persuasion, I would have said, Well, I'm a Christian because I wasn't a Hindu. I wasn't a Buddhist. I wasn't a Muslim. I didn't belong to the new age. I didn't belong to any of those things. And I was baptized as a child and all. So I would say I am a Christian. And there are many who will say that to this day. Well, we're a Christian. Well, these are essentials. Let me give you a couple of essentials, essentials of Christian faith. And these are the things that every genuine believer actually embraces. The first thing that I'll point to is that Jesus is God in the flesh. Every true believer in Christ knows that he is God in the flesh. Now there are people out there who will tell you that he's the first creation of God. There are others who will say to you he's the God amongst many gods. There are those who will speak to you and say that he's a great teacher. Some will even say that he was a messiah for a different time. There's a variety of things that are said concerning Jesus Christ. But a genuine believer in Christ knows that he is God Almighty in human flesh. How do we know that? Well, in John chapter one verse one in the beginning was a word. The word was with God and the word was God. In verse 14 of John 1, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. The word was God and the word became flesh. He is Emmanuel, God with us. That's an essential. If you don't believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, you're not a Christian. That is an essential of the faith. A second is that salvation is by grace through faith and that comes through Jesus Christ alone. There's no other way. There's no other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. In Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine, it says by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So we know that the way that we came to faith in God was through his grace. The way that we came to relationship with him is by the grace of God. We didn't work for our salvation. There's nothing we could do that would make us good enough to be accepted by perfect God. So God did it on his own. He sent his son. That's an essential of our faith. Salvation is by grace through faith. It comes only through Jesus Christ. And then third, Jesus is bodily resurrected and that's the core of all gospel preaching. The core of all gospel preaching is the center on the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection is the center of all of our faith. If Jesus died and remained in the grave, then what's the point of preaching? I'll show you that in a moment. But the first time the gospel was preached, the resurrection was at the center on the day of Pentecost when the 120 were in the upper room, awaiting the promise of the Father. And then the day of Pentecost fully arrived and the Holy Spirit fell upon them and they poured out of that room and they began to speak in languages that they had never learned. The gift of tongues had been given to them and people were hearing them because people had been assembled and they see these Christians, these people who are followers of Christ out there speaking of the wonders of God, people began to mock them and they said, oh, these people are filled with new wine. And then the apostle Peter in response to that began to share with them. He said, Men of Israel, we are not, as you suppose, drunk and it's too early in the day for that. But this is that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel who said, In the last days, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and he begins to speak and give a biblical answer to a supernatural event. And so as that happened, that gave him an opportunity to preach. And when he began to preach, it says in Acts 2 verses 23 and 24, he spoke of Jesus and he said, This man was handed over to you by God's deliberate plan and foreknowledge. And you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the center of all true biblical preaching. Keep that in mind because sometimes people will, well, they've even asked to come here and to share in all of that. And they want to do evangelism. But I've seen the messages. They don't speak of the resurrection of Christ. They don't speak of the purpose of Jesus dying on the cross. You can't evangelize without speaking of sin and righteousness and judgment. You can't evangelize without pointing people to the cross of Christ and the grave that was left empty on the third day. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the center of all gospel preaching. A lot of times they'll say, Well, if you want a better day or you want to have more peace or you want to have joy, you want to have prosperity or you want, and they give you a lot of promises, but they don't tell you about your sin. They don't tell you about the need to repent, to turn from it by faith to come to Christ. They don't tell you about that. They don't tell you Jesus died on the cross, the reason he died on the cross. But the center of all gospel preaching is the resurrection of Christ. The fact that he died on the cross, he was buried, but the third day he rose from the dead. And there are going to be those, and there are those, even to this day, who will say that that did not happen. Our faith is built on Christ crucified, yet bodily resurrected from the dead. There are those who will tell you that Jesus rose from the dead, but they will say that he came in a spirit form. In one of my theology classes in Azusa Pacific University, the professor was speaking to us concerning whether it matters or doesn't matter whether Jesus was bodily resurrected. The Bible says it is very important that he was bodily resurrected because there are those who say, well, Christ's spirit came up, and a variety of things like that. But in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 14, Paul said it like this. He said, if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. You see, the resurrection remains an essential for true gospel preaching. And the true gospel keeps Jesus in the center, presented him as the only Savior. Deceivers will give you a message that says he's one of many. He's one of like, like, you know, Moses. He's like a Muhammad. He's like a Buddha. They'll say he's like one of them, great teacher, a prophet, miracle worker, a variety of things. But the true gospel presents Jesus Christ as God in the flesh, the Savior of mankind. And salvation, again, Acts 4, 12 is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven, given to mankind, by which we must be saved. So Jesus warned early in his ministry, he warned about false prophets. In Matthew 7, 15 and 16, he said, beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles. Are they? So what happens, and I'm laying this as a foundation, what happens is false prophets will be multiplying. And the fruit that Jesus is speaking about, one of the evidences that they're false is they have what you call a denial, a denial of the biblical essentials. There's a denial of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, Savior of mankind. And in 1 John 4, verse 3, John said, every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. There's a denial of the need to turn from sin and be transformed. There are people who will say, you know what, just say this prayer and you can come to faith in God and you'll have eternal life. So there's a denial of need for repentance. That's the first word of the gospel is turned, repent, repent from your wicked ways, repent, turn around, change your mind. You're going in one direction, turn around. And that's a preaching of repentance because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's what the word of God teaches. And in Ephesians, Paul said it like this in chapter 5, verses 5 and 6, he said, this you know that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. He went on to say, let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. So you can't say I'm a Christian fornicator. It just doesn't work that way. I'm a Christian thief. I'm a Christian gangster. I'm a Christian. No, no, you turned away from those things to come to faith in Christ. And that's why he says, let no one deceive you. There's also going to be a denial of the need for solid biblical teaching. They're thinking Bible studies are boring. You know, tell me some fantastic story. Tell me some super thing that I can get all holy ghost goosebumps about and walk out, walk it on clouds and this and that. There'll be a denial for the need for solid Bible teaching. By the way, we're in that period now. We're in that period now. You know, when the Calvary Chapel movement came back many years ago now, when when Pastor Chuck began to to train up pastors by first by just teaching his own church, we were we were as young people, we were we came to the studies in droves. Why? Because we'd been lied to by the world so long, we wanted truth. And we knew that the Bible was God's word. Well, today a lot of people who profess to be evangelical Christians, believers in Christ, you know, they say, well, I believe some of the Bible, but not all of it. Well, in 2 Timothy 4, 3 and 4, it says, the time will come when they will not endure or put up with sound doctrine. They will not put up with healthy teaching. But after their own lusts, shall they heap, shall they accumulate to themselves teachers having itching ears, they shall turn away their ears from the truth voluntarily and shall be turned to fables, to stories, things that make me feel good. What they do is they accumulate numerous teachers who tell them what they want to hear. That's not new, by the way, that's something found in the Old Testament. In the book of Isaiah, in chapter 30, verses 9 and 10, we read, these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the Lord's instruction. They say to the seers, stop seeing visions, to the prophets, do not prophesy to us the truth, speak to us pleasant words, prophesy illusions. Tell us what we want to hear. In the age of narcissism, when everything is what I want, and if it's not done the way I want it, then I'll just walk out and go some place where it is, where I want to be. In the age of narcissism, where everything's about me, and Paul had stated that. He said, the day is going to come when men will be lovers of themselves and lovers of money and disobedient and a variety of things. He said, that's the signs of the last days. We're living in those days. We're living in those days. Narcissism, that the world revolves about my wants, my needs. I don't like what you said, so I'll cancel you. That's now. We're living in that right now, where people can't take a straight word, they get hurt, feelings, they get angry, and they just walk out saying, I'll go some place, it'll tell me what I want to hear. We're living in that time right now. And then there's a denial of God by the way of life. And by living in a certain way, they're saying this is what I really believe. And many false teachers live ungodly lifestyles. Titus chapter one verse 16 says it like this, they profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. They profess to know God, but in their lifestyle they deny Him. They talk about God, but the God that they're talking about is not a holy God, is not a righteous God, is not a God who on one day will be judging heaven and earth, judging all things. The God that they want to profess is kind of like a buddy, somebody you go on double dates with, a pal, but not the holy God of the universe. And because they have no fear of God, they don't care about their lifestyle. And they also encourage others to live the same way. Well, in verse 21 of this chapter, notice how Jesus said, if anyone says to you, look, here's the Christ, or look, he's there. Jesus said, do not believe it. Now, this is taking place, as I read in verse 21, during the seven-year tribulation, this is taking place at that time. And I was mentioning to you that there will be a false prophet, the premier false prophet, and he'll be performing miracles. And he's doing so to try and drive out the believers who have gone to flee to the mountains, as it says in Matthew 24, 16. And so rumors will abound saying that Jesus has returned, and those who had fled to the mountains are going to be tried to be coerced to come out. They're going to hear rumors that Christ has returned. And under the incredible pressure I had mentioned to you, they greatly desire to be with Jesus. And this is Satan's last effort to destroy them, but he will fail to deceive them. Now, some do not believe that this kind of thing will happen. Who's running around saying, I am Christ? Who is saying, I am the Christ? Well, I was just one incident. I just want to share with you one little thing. There's a group called Share International. And Share International has promoted for a number of years. Someone, perhaps some of you are old enough to remember, that they refer to as the Lord Matreya. That took place a number of years ago. There was a prophet by the name, a false prophet by the name of Benjamin Kram, who was promoting that the Lord has arrived. Messiah is here. They actually took out ads in major newspapers throughout the United States. You know, the Messiah is here. And this group says Messiah is the final avatar or embodiment of Vishnu, a Hindu God, and that he's already arrived. So what did I do? Well, I went to their webpage so I could take it straight from their webpage. And this is what they say. This is from their webpage. The Christ, Matreya, has come as the avatar of the new age, not just for any specific religious group, but for all men. This is definitely not the end of the world. Far from it being the end, it will be a whole new glorious beginning. In 2010, the emergence of the Christ finally occurred. He has come as a Pakistani man. He wants humanity to see itself as one, brothers and sisters, and work together for the good of all. He wants the governments of all countries to guarantee the citizens of the world some basic human needs, food, shelter, healthcare and education, and also to take better care of the planet and its environment. He also wants to correct many misunderstandings that have crept into our various religions about fate, life and death, heaven and hell, and to reassure men about God's infinite mercy and justice. That's taking place now. That's taking place even as I'm reading this. It's bad now, but it'll be worse in that time. You see, during the tribulation there will be many false prophets and there will be the false prophet because the most evil false prophet to ever live will promote the acceptance of anti-Christ. Paul in 2nd Thessalonians 2 9 and 10 said it like this. He said, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. They did not receive the love of the truth. Believe it or not, there are people who refer to themselves as Christians who do not love the truth and Paul said they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. During the tribulation this false prophet will deceive multitudes. Revelation 13 verses 13 and 14 says that the false prophet performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived. And so this false prophet is going to be promoting anti-Christ and people will begin to desire anti-Christ openly and the Lord allows them to pursue the anti-Christ. In 2nd Thessalonians 2 11 and 12 Paul said, for this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie, the lie that anti-Christ is Messiah. They will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. So he allows them to pursue that which is the greatest longing in their heart. He gives them up to the uncleanness and lust that is within them. And in the end they simply reap what they've been sowing. Isaiah 26-21, see the Lord is coming out of his dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. Their earth will disclose the blood shed upon her. She will conceal her slain no longer. So Lord is coming to deal with it. And so God is bringing judgment through the tribulation and Jesus is speaking of that. 2nd the tribulation is intended to prepare Israel to meet Messiah. You see during the tribulation God is dealing with unbelieving Israel. During this time he brings about the conversion of multitudes of Jews. The tribulation is going to act as a refiner's fire if you will. It's going to purge and draw them to Messiah. In the Old Testament book of Zechariah chapter 13 verse 9 this third I will bring into the fire. I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them. I will say they are my people. They will say the Lord is our God. So he brings these people to the fire. One third of them come out refined. And among the one third of Israel declared God's people are the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. Revelation 7 records that there are 12,000 Jews sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel. Revelation 14 declares they are protected by God as they go about preaching the gospel. And so at this point we're going to see what happens as the tribulation comes to an end. That was your introduction. Let's get into our Bible study verse 24. But in those days after that tribulation the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. The stars of heaven will fall. The powers in the heavens will be shaken. Now the world at this point has experienced terrible upheaval. Great fear has fallen upon man. Remember Jesus's men had asked what is the sign of your coming? When is your return? What will we need to know or what will people need to know? I mentioned to you that this was intended for those who were living during that period because when you look at verse 14 it says, let the reader understand. This is intended for those who are living in the period where the judgments are coming upon mankind. And so this is what's going to take place as the tribulation comes to an end. This is after he says that tribulation the sun will be darkened. So this is at the end of its full seven-year period. Now verse 24 and 25 speaks of the sun darkened and the moon not giving light. When you read through the revelation the world has experienced terrible upheaval. Great fear has fallen upon man. I mentioned to you last time we're together that Revelation 16 outlines what are called the bull judgments. There are there is a series of three judgments that we see in the book of Revelation from chapter 6 through 19. And you have what are called the seal judgments. Then you have what are called the trumpet judgments. Then you have these judgments are escalating in intensity. Then you come to the bull judgments. And I spoke of that this last time. Well Revelation 16 verse 10 says this, then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and the kingdom became full of darkness. They nod their tongues because of the pain. So when Jesus said in those days after the tribulation the sun will be darkened you're looking at the bowl judgment. Now in the Old Testament two prophets are actually several more but I'm just citing two. Both the prophet Isaiah and the prophet Joel wrote of this. In Isaiah 13 verse 10 he said the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened in its going forth and the moon will not cause its light to shine. In the book of Joel chapter 2 verses 30 and 31 I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth blood and fire pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness the moon into blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. So as these things are taking place the people who are witnessing this will be in terror. It's one thing to talk like you're really tough in this and that when there's nobody there to confront you about it. It's different when that person that can do something about it actually is there. You suddenly you're not as big and strong and tough as you thought you were because you're being confronted with somebody who can deal with that. I remember just now I just came to memory one of my my kids was when they were younger little six or seven years old or something. They were upset and and I happened to walk in the room from coming from the office. I came walking into the room. They didn't know I was there. They were talking to their mom. I still remember they were because I could see them but they couldn't see me and I remember looking and then hearing my son as he was racing his voice to his mother and he said something like this. He says I won't do that if I don't want to. He went like that and I stepped from behind and he saw me and then he goes and I want to. Well I just remembered that. It was so funny. I said you better want to. See you can be real brave as long as the person that can deal with you isn't in the room. So they're going to be that way when all of this is starting to take place but when God's judgments begin to hit and these growing and escalating terrible things people are going to be greatly upset and distressed. Luke 21, 25 and 26. There will be signs in the sun in the moon in the stars and on the earth distress of nations with perplexity. The sea and the waves roaring. Men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And that's what's taking place here. It says in verse 26. Then they will see the Son of Man which is a title of Messiah. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. Again there are those who say and perhaps you're aware of this already but there are those who say that Jesus has already returned. Did you know that? That there are groups that say the Jehovah's Witnesses say that. They say that Jesus returned during World World War I. They said he returned invisibly. It's in their writings. You can look it up if you think I'm making this up. They say it. It's in their publications. I've read it on their publications that Jesus came invisibly and he's been running the show basically from the headquarters of the Watchtower organization in Brooklyn, New York. That's what they say. That's part of their publications. There are those who say that he's already returned in contradiction to all of this. But the Bible speaks of his return because they say that he's come invisibly but his return is going to be seen because his return is literal. In Acts 111 they said, these angels said to the apostles, men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven because you see Jesus had just ascended. The same Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven. It'll be visible and actual, not invisible. In Revelation 1 verse 7, behold he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him even so. Amen. So people from all the tribes of the earth will mourn especially purified Israel. Again in the Old Testament book of Zechariah chapter 12 verses 10 and 11, I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me the one they have pierced. They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son on that day. The weeping in Jerusalem will be great. The son of man, he says, coming in the clouds. He'll return with his armies which are given the image of clouds. In Jude 14 Enoch also the seventh from Adam prophesied of the insane, behold the Lord comes with 10 thousands of his saints. Now that includes the angels that did not fall in rebellion. Paul speaks of it in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 10. Listen to what he says. He said, The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who know not God and who obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all those who believe because our testimony among you was believed in that day. Our testimony among you was believed. Again there's the hearing and there's the believing. There are a lot of people have heard but not all have believed. The believing is where the transformation comes. It comes from the belief. I believe I put it into practice. God has manifested himself to me and has transformed my life by the power of his spirit and through the truth of his word. I heard it and I have believed. I have confessed it and have seen God do something through that. But people have heard this message but not everyone will actually act on it. My daughter Anna was talking to me just this week and she said to me, you know dad, she goes, when I was like, she said, I think she was seven or eight. She said, you remember those last times movies that you had us kids sit and watch when we were little? I said, yeah. Again I forget the name of the series. What's it called? Left behind. Yeah, I knew. I was just testing you. I said, you pass. No, left behind. I had my kids watch it and I think my Anna might have been seven or eight when I first had them watch it. She said, dad, you don't know what that did to me. I said, what? What? She said, it got me scared. I said, really? She said so much. Now, I got a picture. She was seven or eight. She said, so much so I was telling my friends, again, seven and eight year olds, you got to receive Christ or you're going to get your head cut off. She was telling her friends that. I said, really? She said, can you imagine what the parents thought about that weird little girl scaring their children? I said, well, you know what? I said, I wanted you to be prepared because see, I used to tell my kids, either you receive Christ or you're going to receive Antichrist. I want to do my best to make sure that you receive the true Christ because there is an Antichrist who will come. The spirit of Antichrist has already been on the earth since the first century, but there will be one who is the Antichrist, the lawless one, the beast, the little horn, so many different names in scripture who will come and I would tell him they're going to, he's going to give a mark. If you receive the mark, you're going to, you know, you won't enter into heaven. Don't take the mark. And then they see this, this movie where a little boy comes with his balloon and then he gets his head cut off and then you see a balloon flying up into heaven, tripping everybody out, making parents cry and the little kid's scared. And that's what happened. And so my little girl remembered that up to this day and she was just sharing it with me. But I said, honey, I just, you know, yeah, I just wanted you to know that these things are going to take place. And obviously you remember. And that's a good thing, even if you were a little scared at that time. But there is a proper place to be afraid of not being in the will of the Lord. There's a proper place for that, but I didn't mean to make her so scared, but I do it again in a heartbeat. But anyway, see the thing that for me, and I'll say this very briefly, that is very, very important, is very, very important is not just that I go to heaven. I want a good heaven. And not just that my wife goes to heaven. I want her to go to heaven, of course, even though she'd say she's already in heaven. But anyway, that's true. But anyway, no, I want my kids to go to heaven. And I want my grandbabies to go to heaven. I want us to be together in heaven. That's why I told my dad. That's why I told my mom. That's why I told my brother. That's why I told my sisters. That's why I told my friends. And that's why I've been saying it for now, almost 52 years. I want people to be with Jesus. Because if you don't receive Christ, you will receive the antichrist. You're already following the spirit of antichrist, which has been in this world. It's the spirit of denial of who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus Christ has done and how you can enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's already here, that spirit of denial. And so as Jesus is speaking here in chapter 13, an answer to the question of when is your coming and what's going to accompany your coming. And he gives the longest answer to any question that he ever answers in the New Testament. He's giving them stages. He's letting them know these are the things that are going to take place. And then he speaks concerning the fact in verse 26 that he comes with great power and glory. You see when he returns, Jesus is coming as a lion. He's not coming as a lamb. And he's going to conquer and he will destroy his enemies at Armageddon. You see at that time, armies have gathered against Jerusalem, again in Zechariah chapter 12, verses one through three. This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding people's reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. He goes on in chapter 14 of Zechariah, verses three and four, and writes, then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. On that day, his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. The coming of the Lord. In Revelation 19, verses 11 through 21, this is what we see. I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse whose rider is called faithful and true, with justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses, and dressed in fine linen white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, he will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun who cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair come, gather together for the great supper of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings, generals, and the mighty of horses and the riders and the flesh of all people, free and slave, great and small. Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest were killed with the sword coming out of the mouth of the rider on the horse and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh. The lion, the lamb is a lion. Jesus came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He gave to us a message to call people to himself, to be at peace with God, to cease hostility and to preach the gospel of reconciliation to what the God was in Christ and he was reconciling the world to himself. That's the preaching of the gospel and that's what the church has been commissioned to do. And so we have been doing that for 2,000 years, taking the word of God, proclaiming it as it is. There are false teachers who profit from it. There are false teachers who make money off of it. There are false teachers who have corrupted it and have deceived people, but there are the true who have held fast to the word of God and proclaimed it as it is. They do so because in the end we all stand before the Lord to reap the results of the works and efforts that we have put forth by the Spirit in order to honor him. So we do it in order to receive an incorruptible crown. We do it so that we might hear the words, well done my good and my faithful servant. That's why we preach the way that we do. That's why we take you through all the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. What does it say? How do we apply it? This is what we should look for because that's what ministers are called by God to do. But there are the false one who give a false hope, who preach according to what people want to hear, who will tickle the ears, make a profit off of their finances and have a name at being some great something. But they stand before God and ultimately receive judgment for what they've done. And so God has called the church to proclaim the only message through the only man that can actually save people by God's grace and through faith in him. That's what we're called to do because ultimately what happens, this word is true, ultimately what happens is these things will take place. And that false profit, that anti-Christ and the enemy of our soul Satan will ultimately be in that lake of fire forever. But while they're there suffering the torment that they deserve, we receive the grace we didn't deserve. And we will be before the throne of God worshiping and praising him and thanking him for what he's done on our behalf by sending his Son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for us. We will be there with the multitudes waving and singing and praising and thanking God for what he's done. Our friends and our families will be with us as we say. Thank you Jesus for all that you have done. Thank you that you saved us. Thank you that you gave us your grace. Thank you that you gave us gift. Thank you for all you've done. Bless you Lord. See this is going to take place. This is going to take place and we need to be aware of that. And then finally in verse 27, then he will send his angels and gather together his elect from the four winds from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. He'll send his angels. This occurs after the unrepentant ungodly have been destroyed. In Matthew 13 verses 41 through 43 Jesus said, the Son of man will send out his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing a nation of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the Son in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The angels will gather the elect. Those who came to faith in Jesus during the tribulation will be gathered together. That includes the 144,000 Jews protected during the tribulation. You see that in Revelation chapters 7 and 14. It includes those who were saved during that time and these will all join with the redeemed of all history in worship and praise to God. Together we enter the kingdom. We will enjoy the millennium and then we'll enjoy the glory and the joy of eternity with him. Revelation 22, 16 and 17. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star and the spirit and the bright say come and let him who hears say come and let him who thirsts come whoever desires let him take the water of life freely let him come. I was and I'll close with this. Marie, my wife and I were in New York, upstate New York. I was teaching at a pastors conference and as I was with a group of pastors from the northeast, I was sharing with them the importance of remaining true to teaching the word of God and I was sharing with this group of pastors and their wives and some servants within the fellowship. I said, be very careful. Be very careful that you give the unvarnished word of God to your churches. You see, I think that we are salt and light, as Jesus said, that we have a responsibility as watchmen on a wall to cry out when danger approaches. We have that responsibility and thus when we look at our society in the way that it's going, we make comments related to that from a biblical perspective. We see these things. This is the answer to those things. This is what we need to do. But I told these pastors this, I said, men, be very careful that you don't get caught up with the topic of the day and fail to teach the whole counsel of God because it is not a president that is going to save us. We have a Savior named Jesus Christ. We need to preach Christ and Him crucified because in this day, we are caught up seeing all the bad, but we forget that there's so much good that God is presently doing and we need to know that though the enemy is trying to make us hopeless, our hope is in Jesus Christ. We have read the last page of this book. We win in Jesus Christ and we need to preach that. Be careful, be careful, be careful that you don't get caught up speaking of all the bad things. We have eyes to see, but teach them the things that are answers to those bad things. See, the only way to change, the only way to save and change a nation is one person at a time. I said to them, preach the gospel and reach one person at a time. There was a little boy who was causing problems to his mother. He was a few years old and his mother was trying to do something, so she found a magazine and she saw a globe on it and so she pulled the page out and kind of cut it up and handed it to her son and said to her son, hey son, put the world back together again. She thought she was buying some time because she had cut it in such small pieces, but he calls her up and says, come on in mom, I'm done. It was only five minutes. She says, why? How could you have put the world together in such a short time? He says, well it's easy. On the other side of that map of the world was a picture of a man. I put the man together and when I put the man back together the world came together and I believe that. I believe when you get one person at a time, that one person can reach another person, that one person can reach another person and you can reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to understand that the world doesn't come back together until the man does and that's why we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the life transforming message of salvation by grace and the love of God. Let us not forget that as we go about our daily affairs, our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers and our relatives need to know Jesus Christ. The most selfish person in heaven is the one who goes to heaven by themselves. So we need to take people with us, bring them with you, tell them about Jesus and watch what God will do. You will be so blessed when you see your dad or your mom, your brother or your sister, a cousin, friend, co-worker, bow their head and say yes to Jesus Christ. There's nothing greater than that to see an entire life and people who follow after that changed too. Because when you reach one person, very often you reach their family and a whole family can be transformed because of the love of Christ. That's what happened in my case. I got saved. I led my father to Christ, my mother to Christ, brought my brother and my sisters to a knowledge of Jesus Christ and that changed generations. We can do it just hold fast and watch what God will do. Jesus is coming and it's time to get busy, roll up our sleeves and get to work. Our father we ask that you would work