(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you so much for your word. All right, good morning again, amen. So we're in Luke chapter number 21 and we're still dealing with Matthew chapter 24. Okay, we're gonna deal with, we're gonna be focusing on end time stuff for quite a few weeks. We're gonna take our time and go through these things and make sure that we have a very good understanding of what's gonna be happening before Christ's return. So just to break everything down, okay, last week, what did we talk about? We talked about the rapture, okay? We talked about the fact that the rapture is not before the tribulation, okay? And then talked about why that's offensive to a lot of Christian people and basically proved that that is what the Bible teaches, that the rapture will happen after the tribulation. Now, people get all kinds of mixed up on this stuff and a big part of that, a big reason for that is because of Zionist doctrines that have permeated Christianity for so many years. It's really difficult to get their tentacles out of the Bible prophecy area of study and so that's what we're gonna attempt to do. We're gonna take those things apart and we're gonna make sure that we understand this as it is written and so again, really, we're dealing with the last seven years before Christ's return, okay? So you got about three and a half years which covers tribulation, okay? And then you're gonna have what's called the abomination of desolation and that's gonna begin great tribulation and we'll get into that a little bit tonight or this morning rather and then next week, we're gonna spend pretty much a whole sermon on the abomination of desolation and then of course, after that, you have the day of the Lord or the day of Christ and then you have God's wrath which is poured out on the earth against all of the unbelievers and of course, during that timeframe, we will be gone because the Bible does say we're not appointed unto wrath and so we're gonna take probably a few weeks, again, to break all these different things down and to really just do a deep dive and so these things are gonna require obviously some attention, a little bit of patience because it's not gonna be kind of like your typical Sunday morning sermon. So with that in mind, we're in Luke chapter 21. Keep your place there because we're gonna come right back to it but go to Matthew 24. Go to Matthew chapter number 24 real quick. We're gonna look at a couple of verses here. Matthew chapter 24. Look at verse number one. Okay, Matthew chapter number 24 verse number one because we wanna understand what's going on in this passage. So Luke 21, Mark 13, Matthew 24, these are all parallel passages. You wanna have a good understanding of all of these before you start to study your prophecy and while I'm on that note, obviously every preacher is gonna tell you to study everything that we say and just to check to make sure it's right and also because when you study these things by yourself, you're gonna be able to explain them to other people and so it's gonna mean more to you. It's gonna hit home harder. I would say aside from salvation, this stuff here, prophecy is definitely one of those things. Very important for you to study these on your own as well. Don't just rely on sermons. Take notes, write these things down and actually do some digging around. You're gonna see that it's gonna be a blessing to you in that regards. Matthew 24, look at verse number one. Okay, the Bible says this. And Jesus went out and departed from the temple and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple. Okay, so get the scenery right here. Get the picture right. Okay, Jesus just left the temple. He's got the disciples. We gave the names last week of who those guys are. It's not all 12 and they're pointing out like look at how glorious this is. Look at all these buildings. Look at what we have here. Isn't this something magnificent? Isn't this just a beautiful sight? And look at the first thing Jesus says here, verse two. And Jesus said unto them, see 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. Okay, so you go from these guys asking this question, or basically making a statement like, wow, look at these buildings. You know, this is great. This is just, look how magnificent this is. Then Jesus is like, yeah, it's all gonna go away. It's all gonna get destroyed, okay? And so what you have to understand, if you were in their shoes, you'd probably be thinking like they were like, well, that's gotta be at the end of the world. Okay, there's no way it's gonna happen. You know, at 70 AD, which we know that's what happened. Now look at verse three. It says, and as he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? Okay, so as you read through Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke chapter 21, understand that there is a double question being asked here, okay? So they say, tell us when these things shall be. Well, what is he referring to? What are they wanting to know? Well, they wanna know when the temple and the buildings are gonna come down, like Jesus said. That's what they wanna know, okay? But they also want to know when shall be the sign or what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world. So there's really three questions that they're asking. So Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke chapter 21 is basically Jesus answering all three of those questions. Okay, and you have to keep that in mind because we're traditionally taught, you know, various different things and a lot of these things that we're taught just are simply not true. Like there's a big teaching out there, okay, that says, well, the abomination of desolation is basically when, you know, Titus came in and destroyed Jerusalem. And so now we're actually in the tribulation and it's, you know, it's all figurative. You know, that's pretty popular out there amongst a lot of people. And you're gonna see today that that is not true. And what you're gonna find is there's double fulfillments in a lot of these things that you read here, okay? And that can cause some confusion if you're not familiar with that. Now, just to kind of give you an example of what I mean by double fulfillment, go to Matthew chapter two real quick. Go to Matthew chapter number two and I'll show you an example. So Matthew chapter two, look at verse 14. So the Bible says this. It says, when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. Now let's say you've never read the Old Testament before. Hey, or maybe you've only read it a couple of times and, you know, you're still kind of new to Bible reading. You just read past this. You're like, okay, it was just clearly, you know, explained in the Old Testament, clearly written down. And then you just keep moving on. Now let's actually go and find where this prophecy is and I wanna show you something here. So go to Hosea, Hosea chapter number 11. Let's take a look at something here. Hosea chapter number 11. So right before the book of Joel, you go to Hosea chapter number 11. And let's take a look at this here. All right, so Hosea, if you don't know, is one of three of the minor prophets that was geared largely towards the Northern Kingdom of Israel. And so you're reading through Hosea and it's just basically God giving Hosea a special assignment, okay? He's gonna live his life in basically a replicative manner of how the Northern Kingdom of Israel was. So obviously highlighting adultery and things of that nature. Hosea's life reflected that. His life basically reflected how the Northern Kingdom of Israel was. And so it's all basically surrounding that and as well as their coming destruction. The fact that the Assyrians would come in and take them out of the land and they would never come back. Now Hosea chapter number 11, look at this here in verse number one. It says this, when Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. Okay, so you're reading that. Okay, what's your first thought? Hey, well your first thought, well Hosea is talking to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It's a prophecy. It's just basically God remembering Israel, the nation when it was young, when it was in its infancy and they were in bondage in Egypt and he called them out. Hey, this is clearly what it's talking about. Now look at verse two. As they called them, so they went from them, they sacrificed unto Balaam and burnt incense to graven images. So again, what's God doing here? He's highlighting the fact that, hey, when they were young, when they were in bondage, they were much more humble than they were during this time, obviously. And he's saying, I loved Israel back at that time. That's when things were better. It would be better for you to be back in those days than you are right now because he said, after he calls them out of Egypt, we all know what happened. They had their ups and downs. Okay, they had the time of the judges and then they called the kings and they had the divided kingdom. And now the Northern Kingdom of Israel is basically just in full blown idolatry. Okay, just absolutely distraught, void of the word of God. God is pleading with them. And so that's the subject here. So I remember the first few times I read this, it never came to my mind that this needed to be fulfilled again. See what I'm saying here? But if you go back to Matthew chapter number two, and look at verse 15 again, and look what it says. So it says this. It says, and was there. Okay, remember Joseph took his family, took the Lord down to Egypt to avoid the persecution of Herod. Verse 15, and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, out of Egypt have I called my son. So what you have to understand is just because a verse may seem like it has already been fulfilled, doesn't mean that it has already been fulfilled. And so what this proves here is the necessity to really slow down and rightly divide the word of truth. Because you go back to Hosea chapter 11, I mean, this is definitely a double fulfillment here. This was fulfilled as obviously Hosea is writing it. I mean, he's just basically stating something that happened in the past, right? You don't read this and think like, oh, this is a prophecy, at least I never would have. I'd be like, okay, he's just simply saying that he loved Israel when he was a child and called his son out of Egypt. And then to further make matters more complicated, verse two, it's like, you know, and called them so they went from them and they sacrificed them to Baal and burnt incense unto graven images, okay? So I mean, it's like, wait a second, how is this a prophecy about Christ? Because we know that that part doesn't apply, but yet this does have double fulfillment, okay? So just kind of a little bit of a complicated thing there, but hopefully that makes sense to you. Hopefully you understand that when you read through Matthew 24, Mark 13, and several other places in the Bible, there's going to be more than one way that these things get fulfilled. And we're gonna take a look at that stuff. Now go back to Luke chapter 21 and let's get into this. So the objective for this morning is to really just kind of talk about the tribulation period before the abomination of desolation. And then what we're gonna do is we're gonna basically do an introduction to the abomination of desolation this morning. And then we'll get into much more details next week. So what can we expect during the tribulation period? What's it gonna be like on the earth? What's gonna happen here? Let's see what the Bible says here. So let's start this off here in verse number seven of Luke 21. So it says in the, asked him saying, master, but when shall these things be? And what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? So again, keep those questions in mind. They wanna know when the destruction of the temple and the buildings are gonna happen, but they also wanna know what the sign is of his coming back and of course the end of the world. Now look at verse number eight. And he said, take heed that ye be not deceived. Remember last week we talked about this. Bible prophecy is very important. We are commanded to not let other people deceive us. In teaching, the pre-trib rapture is deception. It is a big deal. Now we've had people come into our church before that believe in the pre-trib rapture. We don't mock them, we don't make fun of them. We don't kick them out for something like that. Okay, we're just patient and it is what it is. I know people that have gone to new IFB churches now for eight, 10 years that are still pre-trib. There's not a lot of them, but there are some out there. Okay, and that's a great testimony to that church and the people that go to those churches. So think about that. That's the type of people we wanna be. Now here's the thing. You go try to go to an old independent fundamental Baptist church with our views, okay, and see how long you last. Yeah. I think everybody in here is shaking their heads. Everybody knows how long they're gonna last, okay. I've been there, most of you have been there. It's not pretty. Why is that? That's a problem. Okay, that's a big problem. And we talked about that last week, what that's referring to. Okay, a lack of knowledge and all these other things. So verse eight, and he said, "'Take heed that ye be not deceived, "'for many shall come in my name, saying, "'I am Christ,' and the time draweth near. "'Go ye not therefore after them.'" And of course, this could be another one of those double fulfilling things. Because there are people today, and have been people, and will be people that say, hey, I'm Jesus Christ. I'm the savior. I'm gonna save humanity. George Soros probably thinks of himself in that manner. A lot of these rich billionaires think of themselves in that manner, okay. Well, I heard that Bill Gates has this idea that he wants to block out the sun, okay. I mean, you know, he's gonna save humanity from global warming or something, okay. Now obviously, he's not coming out saying, I'm Jesus Christ, but he's basically saying, in other words, I've got ideas, I can save you, I can save the world. But for every person who identifies as Jesus Christ of the Bible or as some kind of a messiah, there's 150, just say, false prophets who come in the name of Christ, meaning they come and say, hey, I love Jesus Christ, I'm a Christian, but yet they deceive many people, okay, because they have a different gospel. So we talked about that last week, but that is going to increase as the day draws nigh, as Christ's return is approaching. You're gonna see an increase in all of these things that we're reading about this morning. Now look at verse nine. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified, for these things must first come to pass, but the end is not by and by. I can't stress to you enough how important this is. I meet people all the time of our sort and they're terrified of all these things that they're hearing on the internet about Ukraine and in Russia and World War III and all this stuff, and they're like, oh, the end is near, what are we gonna do? I'm gonna start prepping. Nothing wrong with prepping, okay, but we're gonna get into that here in a minute. It's not gonna help you during this time, by and large. It's not, okay? At least when the abomination of desolation happens, you're not gonna have time to go get your canned goods and your big fish tank you're growing out in the backyard and all that stuff, okay? It's just not gonna work. But I'll get to that here in a second. Okay, well, what does he say here in verse nine? What's the applicable thing for us? But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified. Look, the day's obviously closer today than it was yesterday, than it was last week, and you're just gonna hear more and more rumors about wars, wars that are starting. We shouldn't be terrified of these things. In fact, you should rejoice. In fact, you should be excited because we were told that this was gonna happen, that it was gonna be like this, okay? So we should have the opposite effect. But the problem is, a lot of people today, they get sucked into watching these podcasts and going to Infowars, and again, I understand they have a lot of truth over at Infowars. I'm not dogging that. But when a person just gets fully sucked into that, okay, I have noticed myself personally a certain fear that comes over these people, okay? And it's just mind-blowing. It's not what God has for us. Okay, we're supposed to take that information and be like, oh, okay, you know? I guess, you know, I can fit that in here. Does that fit in here? What are we gonna do with that? And things of that nature, okay? I get that. We all understand that. The point is, don't be terrified, okay? You should not be terrified of these things that are coming. Look at verse 10. Then said he unto them, nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and famines and pestilence and fearful sites and great signs shall there be from heaven. So remember your three S's here, okay? You're gonna have sickness, okay? And understand what he's saying there. Okay, great earthquakes. Now, this isn't like Tony the Tiger grade. This is great as in large, okay? Large earthquakes in diverse places and different places. So great earthquakes shall there be in diverse places and then you're gonna have your signs, your sicknesses and your what? Your sites. Okay, your sites. Look what it says. Great earthquakes shall be in diverse places and famines, pestilence, fearful sites, okay? Fearful sites. Why is it important to understand these things? Because apparently there's going to be something in the heavens and we'll get more into this as the study goes on, but there's gonna be certain sites in the heavens, up in the sky, in the earth of things that are coming upon this planet, okay? And the Bible also says that these sites are gonna cause some men's hearts to actually stop. Now, do you see the benefit of understanding these things? Okay, be not terrified, okay? The feeling of terror in your physical body hurts you. It is unhealthy. You know, we talk a lot about different diets and things of that and I think it's important to understand poisons and, you know, different things that are in our food and, you know, and being healthy and I understand that, but one thing that's almost neglected throughout professing Christianity are our emotions, okay? And terror and fear on a certain level does destroy your body, okay? And it can actually cause your heart to stop. But it's not gonna do that if you understand these things, if you have a good knowledge of these things and you realize these things are supposed to be, they're supposed to come. Now, I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I know what all of these fearful sites are, okay? But as technology increases and, you know, these scientists look out there and, oh, you know, there's a comet coming when really it's, you know, something else, but nonetheless, fear mongering is what you can take from this, right? Fearful sites, great signs that there shall be from heaven. And of course, famines and pestilences, and this is all a result of man, okay? This is a result of sin. It's a result of people thinking that they can cure the world, that they can stop global warming, people messing with the crops and this just goes on and on and on. I believe a lot of these famines and pestilences are definitely man-made, okay? You have an abundance of people today that are hell-bent on wanting to control the population, wanting to cull the population. I mean, you know, we've been saying this for years. People like 10 years ago would be like, you're crazy, you're nothing but a conspiracy theorist. Now the vice president can actually get on national television and literally say, without apologizing, that we're gonna depopulate, right? Go look it up, go look up Kamala Harris, depopulation. She clearly tells the world that that's part of their agenda is to control the population, to get the population down. How do you think they're gonna do that? Well, Bill Gates said he was gonna do it through vaccines, literally told you that's what he's gonna do, okay? But what do you have today? You have thousands upon thousands of people that look to those people for advice, for comfort, for answers, for leadership, and all that does is produce ignorance and death. That is what that produces, okay? But again, going back to verse 11, if you can remember sights, fearful sights, signs, and obviously sicknesses, these things will be great. They will increase during the tribulation period. And of course, earthquakes. Now you say, well, there's always been earthquakes. And that's true, okay? But it says there will be great earthquakes. So these are gonna be earthquakes that are probably leveling entire towns, cities, things of that nature. And so again, as these things befall the world, what is our job? Our job doesn't change. We remain steadfast, we do not be terrified, and we move on with the mission. Now look at verse number 12. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you. Okay, now remember the two questions, or I'm sorry, the three questions that the disciples wanted to know the answers to. Okay, when are these things gonna be? Meaning when are these buildings gonna go down? What's the sign of thy coming? And the end of the world. So he says, but before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into the prisons being brought before kings and rulers for my name's sake. Now you can go read the book of Acts for a list of how many people got thrown into synagogues and the prisons. I mean, heck, the apostle Paul did it. Okay, the apostle Paul wreaked havoc on the church, put men and women in prisons. And of course, he was consenting unto Stephen's death and things of that nature. But, you know, obviously during the tribulation period, I believe that we will be brought before rulers and things of that nature because of Christ. And you see that in other countries right now. They're trying to implement that here in this country, that you don't have free speech. You can't say things that come from the Bible. It's offensive and so on and so forth. Now, look at verse 13. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. So notice the pattern as you study Bible prophecy. Tribulation comes, okay? We have to go through these things. There's a bad thing you're gonna get delivered up. But what happens? It turns to you for a testimony, okay? So every bad thing that the world does to Christians, to his people, we get a blessing out of it. And we ought not forget that, okay? So you're just gonna see that pattern continually all throughout prophecy. Verse 14, settle therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what you shall answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gain. Say or resist, nor resist. We'll come back to that here in a minute. Look at verse 16. And ye shall be betrayed, both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends. And some of you shall they cause to be put to death. Okay, now something you have to understand here. Obviously, this has already happened. This has been ongoing since Christ ascended into heaven, okay? There have been martyrs all throughout. You will see this increase though during the tribulation and of course, obviously, through the great tribulation. Now, not every single believer is gonna die, okay? Not every single believer is gonna die because Jesus said, you know, the Bible says in a few places, I don't have time to go there. But you know, when you see these things, look up your redemption draweth nigh, okay? If every Christian was gonna die, he wouldn't say that, okay? Paul said, for we shall not all sleep, okay? Meaning some people will endure these things. Some people will have the skills to pay the bills, in other words, and understand what's coming, understand what's going on and be able to hide from it and be able to somehow escape physical death and go right on into the millennium. So just something to keep in your minds. But the majority of us will be put to death. I had a pastor one time, he was pre-trip. Definitely a brilliant guy though. Definitely very smart, you know? A lot of great insights. And his proof that we weren't gonna go through the tribulation was, he would say, I'm 55 years old and I can't hide in a cave. He's like, and you think God's gonna just let me, you know, go through the tribulation? He's like, come on guys, you know? There's lots of people like me. And because of my age, I'm not gonna be able to endure that. Well, the funny thing about that, there are people that are 60, 70, even 80 years old that grow up on islands and, you know, that are part of these tribes and other countries and they're out in the wild all the time. So that's kind of a silly proof text for the pre-trip rapture, but that was his thought process. And of course, it's foolishness and I always laugh about that. Now, what's going on here in verse 16? Okay, and you shall be betrayed, okay? Betrayal, this is something that we need to be on the lookout for, okay? Obviously something we see all the time in our lives in churches, organizations. I mean, heck, our own government's betraying the citizens as we speak and has been doing this for a long time, but it says in ye, okay, ye believers, shall be betrayed both by parents, brethren, kinsfolk, and friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. Now, why is this? Well, Matthew 24, 12, okay, which says, and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. So because laws are being made and being passed to allow iniquity to abound, and again, I mentioned this last week, because of that, people's hearts wax gross, they wax cold, love is just not a thing, and ironically, what's being pushed out there, oh, love is love, right? And half the time we're knocking on people's doors, and what's the first thing they say? Well, you gotta love your neighbor, and that's how I know I'm going to heaven, because you just gotta love your neighbor. Yeah, because that's something easy to say, they don't actually mean that, or nor do they do that, okay? But this betrayal, you're gonna see parents giving their own children up, brethren, kinsfolk, so people that you know, that you are acquainted with, that you are close to, and your families, people in church, believe it or not, will give other people, because not everybody that goes to church is saved, not everybody that goes to church are believers, there's a lot of people that just go along to get along, and there's coming a time where they will be incentivized to give us up, okay? And heck, the last time I mentioned that, apparently I offended a lot of people, okay? I'm just reading the Bible, I'm just telling you that's how it's gonna be, don't take it personally, don't take it personally, okay, it is what it is. Look, we ought not to be afraid of these people, okay? They might be able to kill the body, but they can't kill the soul. So relax, it's all right, it's gonna happen, get over it, get used to it. Verse 17, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Okay, so understand that these things are coming, that we will be hated, we are hated right now, we can experience this, we can kind of relate to this, but just imagine this intensified throughout the whole world, okay? You're not gonna move to Dubai and be safe, okay? You're not gonna move to Russia and be safe. No matter where you go, when the antichrist is fully operational, okay, you are going to have trouble. Now, let's keep moving on here, verse 18. But there, and this here oughta motivate you, but there shall not an hair of your head perish, okay? Now every man oughta be happy about that, you know? Somewhere, hair loss isn't gonna be a thing in eternity. I used to have a ball past it with all these eyes like that, this is so funny. But you get the idea here, okay? They could kill the body, we're getting a new one. You can't kill the soul, you're not gonna be able to stop us in any capacity. You might be able to remove us from the earth temporarily, we're coming right back, okay? And that's the focus, that is where our minds and hearts need to be, look at verse 19. In your patience possess ye your souls, okay? And again, talk about Romans chapter five last week and why people are so offended when we bring these things up and say, yes, believers will go through tribulation. So, you know, they get so offended because they don't have patience. Why don't they have patience? Because they believe they're entitled not to go through tribulation. Tribulation worketh patience, that's very simple. Basic Bible doctrine there, okay? Tribulation worketh patience, okay? That's why, I mean, think about it, this is why we were patient with people when they come in here and have different prophetic views in us, okay? Because we've gone through some tribulation as a church. It's just, you know, the Bible speaks for itself. Verse 20, look at this, verse 20. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Okay, and you say, well, that already happened in 70 AD and it did. And what I wanna bring up is that in 70 AD when the Romans did come in and break down those buildings, they broke down the temple, they didn't leave one stone upon another. You know what the Christians did? They went up to the mountains, they hid, they fled. They ran, they followed what Jesus said and they endured to the end. But obviously this will happen again, okay? And we'll get into that in greater detail next week. Now we'll be upfront with you. I have some issues with, I guess, the traditional way that we're taught that the antichrist is going to go into the Jews temple and basically stop the daily sacrifice. And then that is the abomination of desolation, okay? And I'll give you several reasons why I've got issues with that. I'll just tell you right now to kind of warm you up. First of all, what happened after the crucifixion? What happened inside of the temple with the veil? It was rent in twain, it was torn in half, okay? So if the antichrist going in and stopping whatever sacrifices Jews start doing, that's not an abomination. The very fact that they're building the third temple right now is an abomination, okay? And so I'm not saying that's not part of Bible prophecy. I'm just saying that I think it's not gonna look the way that we're constantly told. And I will give you more than enough information next week on why I believe that. And we'll get into that in great detail. Look at verse 21. It says, then let them which are in Judea flee into the mountains. Let them which are in the midst of it depart out and let not them that are in the countries enter therein too, okay? And so obviously this did happen in 70 AD, but of course, God works in threes, okay? I believe that Jerusalem will be destroyed again. And there are several reasons for that which we'll get into. Obviously, when the Babylonians came in, that was the first cycle of discipline. That was the first time that they got destroyed. 70 AD was the second. I believe there will be a third. I believe that one, the Antichrist does declare himself to be God and magnify himself. I do believe a lot of the Jews are gonna be like, oh, not this again. I think they're gonna be with them up until that point. And then they're just gonna be like, no, okay? We wanna rule the world. That's what their religion teaches them. That's what Judaism is about. It's about ruling the world. It's about putting the goyim under control, okay? And you say, oh, that's antisemitic. Now, that's a fact. Look, I've got the books in my office if you wanna read them. You wanna go read the Talmud? You wanna go read about that? After the service, I'll show you, okay? It is blasphemous, but I'm getting ahead of myself here, so I gotta stop this here. Let's get back on track, verse 21. And let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter there unto, for these be the days of vengeance. Okay, these be the days of vengeance. Now, obviously, when Rome came in, you could say those were the days of vengeance. But obviously, think about Judaism today, and think about modern day Israel today. They're by and large Christ rejecting, okay? And a lot of the elite claim to be Jewish. They claim to be Jews. And I believe that God is going to destroy these people again, okay? I believe he's going to come in and basically use the Antichrist in regards to that. Verse 22, for these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. Now, remember, a lot of these things have double fulfillment, okay, and so that's why I believe there will be a third destruction over there in Jerusalem. Not to mention, I mean, when you think about Jews today, think about the Dome of the Rock, right? There's a lot of beef between Muslims and Jews. It's gonna take a pretty special person to kind of unify the world under the beast, or the false prophet, which we are gonna get into lightly tonight, or this morning, rather. But look at verse 23. It says, but woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. Okay, so again, you know, when the Romans came in and destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD, this applies there, but it can definitely apply in the tribulation as well, in verse 24, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles unto the times of the Gentiles, or unto the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Okay, and you say, well, this is not the times of the Gentiles. Well, you ever heard of the Dome of the Rock? Who controls that? Is it the Jews? It's the Muslims. Where's it at? It's on the Mount of Olives. That's where it's at, okay? That is where it's at. So what I'm saying here is that this is kind of being fulfilled as we speak. The Jews right now, they cannot do anything to that. Now, obviously, they want their temple where that's at. They want their temple on that spot. They're building it. I don't know where they're building it, but they are in the process of building it. But if they could have their way, they would get all of the Muslims out. They're already working on getting the Christians out as we speak in this day and age right now, okay? They would want to get all the Muslims out, but they can't. Okay, that Dome of the Rock is a big black eye to the Jewish religion. And it is a reminder, I believe, and I'm not endorsing it in any way, shape, or form, but it is a big reminder that they are not in control like they think. Okay, they are definitely not in control, as they say. Now, you can go tour the Dome of the Rock from what I'm told, but unless you're Muslim, there are certain places and certain days you can't go in there and things of that nature. And inside there, it's basically a Muslim shrine. And basically inside there, I guess there's some box or something, and they say, oh, well, this applies to all three Abrahamic religions, okay? You know what I see inside of there? Idolatry, blasphemy, that's what I see inside of there. But anyways, the Jews do not have full control over Jerusalem like they think they do. And that could definitely change. And again, remember this. When it comes to prophecy, there's things that we know like this, and then there's intricate details that we don't know, but we will know when we see them because we'll see things going on in society. We'll see things going on over there. We'll be able to go back to the Bible. Ah, that's how that fits, okay. Okay, so just keep a little bit of fluidity in your mind when you're reading these things. Look at verse 25. And there should be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations. With perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, okay? And so keep that in mind. What are we talking about here? We're also talking about tribulation. Now, obviously, verse 24, verse 23, double fulfillment happened in 70 AD. But verse 25, he says, and there shall be, okay? And this is why I don't think that all of these things were just fulfilled one time and it's not gonna happen again because this hasn't happened yet, okay? Verse 26, 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. Okay, so however that's going to look, you know, whether the stars are coming down and just a lot of different things like that, you know, that is going to cause people's hearts to fail. And so in other words, you have to understand as you're reading this the double fulfillment. I'm gonna keep saying that because we need to get that and understand that. But what's gonna let you know that these times are not like previous times because if you think about it, even people back in World War II days, World War I days, people back, you know, through centuries went through periods in their life where they're like, this is it. Antichrist is here. We're definitely in the tribulation. And then it didn't come to pass. And the reason why they thought they were is because they didn't understand or probably didn't really read these things in great detail to say, wait a second here though, we're not seeing this yet, okay? And also don't forget, we all want to see these things, right? We want to be in the midst of Bible prophecy. You know, we're sick of this world. This world, especially our nation, is just going downhill at an alarming rate. That I can't wait for this stuff to happen. I can't wait for Christ to come back. You know, what a blessing that's gonna be. But God's giving us clues here on what it's gonna be like. We're not quite seeing this as of yet. Look at verse 27. It says, and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, and look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh, okay? So again, there will be some people like we read last week that endure to the end, that escape these things, and they're gonna look up and see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. Now before we get to the abomination of desolation, I just want to give you a couple applicable things for this time period. And really these things can help you in today's day and age and right now. Now number one, go back to verse 14 real quick, okay? Verse 14, look what he says. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what ye shall answer. For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Now you saw that with Peter and John. You've seen that with Paul. You've seen that a lot of times in the book of Acts as they were being delivered up into the councils and things of that nature. But again, double fulfillment, okay? During this time period when we're being delivered up, Christ is letting us know that he will give us the mouth, he will give us the wisdom and things to say. And one note on that is that the more Bible you have in your heart, the more Bible you have in your mind, the more that the Holy Spirit's gonna be able to use and to help you in this type of situation. And of course this applies in all areas of life, okay? You're out soul winning and somebody just brings up an off the wall question. The more study that you've done, the more Bible that you know, guess what? The Holy Ghost is gonna bring these things to your remembrance and help you out. But the important fact of the matter is verse 14, settle it therefore in your hearts. Most of Christianity today has not settled tribulation in their hearts on any level. And therefore, they lack patience. If you lack patience, what else do you lack? Knowledge and wisdom and it's just a downhill spiral from there, okay? So the first application bit that I just wanted to leave you with, settle it therefore in your hearts, okay? That we will go through tribulation and then we don't have to worry about what we're gonna say because Christ will give us that wisdom. Look at verse 18. He says, but there shall not an hair of your head perish and your patience possess ye your souls. Keep your place there, but go to 1 Peter 4 real quick. 1 Peter chapter number 4. I'll show you how this lines up with 1 Peter chapter number 4. So 1 Peter chapter 4, look at verse number 12. The Bible says this. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. So what's Peter doing here? Well, he's letting us know on some level here that hey, look, you're gonna go through trials as a believer. You're gonna go through some sort of tribulation, okay? And you ought not to think it's strange, okay? So we don't wanna just immediately jump to conclusions when we start going through trials. Oh, what did I do last week to deserve this, okay? It may be nothing. It may be just God is trying to prove you and to test you and to make you stronger. Look what we're supposed to do again, verse 13. But rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. And of course, I'm reminded of Daniel, okay? In the book of Daniel, when we're told that we will shine as the brightness of the stars of the firmament forever and ever, those of us who turn many unto righteousness, okay? So soul winners, people who take Christians that are backsliding and they turn them away from that. Look, there's rewards for that, okay? There's blessings for that. There's rejoicing for that. But you have to understand it comes with a cost. It comes with a price. As a soul winner, as a fundamentalist type Christian, you will go through trials and tribulations. And of course, it's gonna be no different in the end times during the tribulation period that we're talking about. Now, a lot of people today, they think like G.I. Joe. You know, I'm an 80s kid, I used to watch the G.I. Joe's. And I remember part of the song was, you know, when the tough gets going, the going gets tough. And a lot of Christians kind of have that mentality today. They're like, well, when I see the tribulation period, if I do have to go through it, then I'll get moving. You know, if the government says they're gonna outlaw Christianity, then I'm gonna start going soul winning. If you won't do it now, when there's literally no law against it, you're not gonna do it when it's illegal. Let's just be real, let's just be honest, okay? Verse 14, if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. Not offended are ye, but what do we have today? We have a lot of people that are offended because we tell them, look, the Bible says very clearly, after the tribulation, okay? You will go through tribulation on a personal level, but also through the world. You're not getting out of it. What's the point here? What are we supposed to do? Verse 14, if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part, he is evil spoken of, but on your part, he is glorified. You know, and again, you know, every once in a while, we have these protesters that come here and they yell things and they mock us and so on and so forth, and we've had Christian people who come in here and they're, you know, not too happy about it, who've had visitors and they're kind of like, you know, oh, this is terrifying, I don't know, you know, why don't they just come in here and get, you know, get saved? It's like, you got this thing all wrong, okay? And some people will say, like, ah, I couldn't go to that church, you know? It's just too intense, it's just too much, and you must be doing something wrong because you have that problem, it means you don't have the love of Christ. It's like, no, look at the verse. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, okay? Our church is reproached because we preach Christ, the word of God, the full counsel of God. Happy are ye, we're happy about it, right? For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you, and I believe that. We've had people that have tried to hurt this church and to this very day, they're still trying to hurt this church, to this very day, they're still trying to hurt this church. But guess what? We can read this verse here, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. We're still here, we're still growing, so get over it. You lost, God won. It is what it is, okay? And so, I just wanted to throw that out there because a lot of people, there are people that have contacted me, seriously, that have contacted me and said, man, you know, I'm moving there, I really wanna come, but I heard there's protesters, okay? But, as soon as I see that but, it's like, I'm not, should I even respond, you know? And it's like, you know, well, I'm gonna try to come on days when I'm not there, just kinda get used to it, and you know, it's like, you're not coming ever. Let's just get real. If you're worried about a few freaks, okay, with chalk in their hands, right on chalk and yell at you, you're weak, you're weak. You're a coward is what you are, okay? You're a coward, you're weak. And you don't belong here, and obviously, the spirit of God and glory is not resting on you. I'm not saying you're not saved. I'm just saying that God's not gonna be able to use, look, do a study on cowardice in the Bible, and show me how many cowards that God uses to do great things. Was Gideon a coward? Nobody was apprehensive at first, okay, but God knew the inside, he knew that he wasn't really a coward, okay, Moses, yeah, he resisted, but Moses wasn't a coward, he was humble, okay? And the list goes on and on and on. God uses people that are not afraid of things. You have to understand that and you have to realize that. Now, I'm going off, way off track here. Go back to Luke 21. We gotta get moving here. Luke chapter number 21, one more time, so we can see the first bit of application. We need to settle these things in our hearts, and we just need to realize that, hey, the spirit of God rests on us. This is why we go through tribulations in our life, and this is why we're gonna go through tribulation in the world, right before the coming of the Lord. Now, look at the second one here, verse 34, Luke 21, 34. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, so that day come upon you unawares. What day? The day of the Lord, okay? This is a warning to Christians. Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting. What does that mean? It means excess, it means overindulgence, it means gluttony, okay? We are to be, as Christians, on guard for these things, because surfeiting is this excess of anything, the excess of the world. When the goods of the world have control of us, we are no longer productive or useful for the kingdom of God, okay? And no Christian wants to just go through life, well, hopefully no Christian just wants to go through life in this state and then see the Lord coming and be like, oh man, I thought it wasn't gonna be yet, okay? Now, I'm not saying you're gonna spend eternity in shame, but you're gonna probably have thoughts like, dang, I could've done so much more. I could've done so much more for Christ. What am I doing here, okay? That thought will ring across your mind. Look at verse 35. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore and pray always that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of man. I've had somebody try to use this as a proof text for work salvation. It's not what it's talking about, okay? This is talking about Christian conduct, okay? Christian conduct. We ought to again be sober and be vigilant, and there's several reasons for that. One, because our adversary, the devil's as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour, whom he may destroy. And so the first bit of application for you today obviously was what? Settle these things in your heart. Settle the fact that you will go through tribulation in your heart and recognize that it's good for us. It means and it proves that God's spirit rests on us. Number two is to be sober and to be vigilant, okay? We don't wanna be like these guys that take to grace and run because they're going to be in regret at some point in their lives. Now, go to 1 Peter 4 again, and let's continue here in verse 15. 1 Peter 4, look at verse 15, he says, "'But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief "'or as an evildoer or as a busybody "'in other men's matters.'" Say again, what are we talking about here? Keeping salvation? No, we're talking about Christian conduct, okay? Christian conduct. We want to be used by God in a mighty way. Verse 16, "'Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, "'let him not be ashamed, "'but let him glorify God on this behalf.'" Verse 17, "'For the time has come that judgment must begin "'at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, "'what shall the end be of them "'that obey not the gospel of God?'" And of course, that is getting into God's wrath upon this world, which we'll get into in a few weeks. Verse 19, "'Wherefore let them that suffer "'according to the will of God commit the keeping "'of their souls to him in well-doing "'as unto a faithful creator.'" So our job as Christians is to be concerned with well-doing. Okay, what did Jesus say? In patience, keep your souls, because not one hair of your head shall perish. So we need to be constantly sober, constantly vigilant as Christians, whether these things are gonna happen in our lifetimes or not, okay? We need to be concerned with well-doing as believers. So enough of that, that's gonna kinda cover just the basic tribulation period, okay? We'll make reference back to it here in the next few weeks as well, get into a little bit more detail. But what I wanna do now is I just wanna do an introduction very quickly on abomination, okay? The abomination of desolation. And let's start off with some definitions here. I want you to go to Genesis chapter number 43, and I wanna give you a definition on what abomination means, okay? What does the word abomination mean? So Genesis 43. Now as you're turning there, I'm just gonna give you the context of the story. So we're gonna read one verse here about Joseph. So if you remember the story about Joseph, his brothers sold him into slavery. He goes through this process of definite tribulation. And then God blesses him. God puts him in a position of power into where he is now second in charge of the nation of Egypt, just under Pharaoh. And his brothers all of a sudden come back into the picture because famine has encompassed the land. And Jacob sends the brethren to go to Egypt to buy food. And of course, Joseph recognizes them. But because of the time that's passed, right, and he's speaking Egyptian, they're like, they don't recognize him. They don't recognize him, but he recognizes his brothers. And there's a meal. So he calls his brothers back to visit. They come to visit and he sets on, Fred, he sets on bread and food for his brethren. And there's this meal that takes place. And you have Joseph, who's a Hebrew, but he's second in charge of Egypt. And then you have the Egyptians that are here helping Joseph. And then you have the Hebrews, okay? So just keep that in mind. Look at verse 32. It says this. And they set on for him by himself, that is Joseph. So remember, this is the meal that's going on here. And for them by themselves, so for the Hebrews, Joseph's brethren by themselves, and for the Egyptians that did eat with him by themselves, okay? So there's segregation going on here. And I did a sermon about segregation a long time ago, but this is where I got that from. Now looking after the colon here, it says, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. Go to Jeremiah chapter 44. So the word abomination is something that you hate, okay? So the Egyptians considered sharing a table, like sitting next to Hebrews as an abomination. Another thing that I find funny that the Egyptians thought was an abomination were shepherds. And why I think that's interesting is because Egypt is often a symbolic picture of the world. And of course, our savior, shepherd, right? And so there's a connection there that we see the world hates our shepherd. They think our shepherd is an abomination. And of course, that's a sermon for another day, but just a basic definition of the word abomination, it is something that you hate, something that you abhor that is not something you love. Now, God lists several abominations in the Bible, but to further prove our definition here, look at verse 22 of Jeremiah 44. The Bible says this, so that the Lord could no longer bear because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which ye have committed. Okay, now, of course, Jeremiah, prophet to the southern kingdom of Judah, the northern kingdom is gone at this point. The Babylonians are just right, ready to come in and start conquering Jerusalem because of the abominations, their idolatries, their violations of scriptures, I mean, just all manner of things, okay? And so he says, and because of the abominations which ye have committed, therefore is your land, now look at this next word, a desolation and an astonishment and a curse without an inhabitant as at this day. Okay, so abominations largely in the Bible are things that God hates, okay? God hates people, God hates certain things, and we need to be aware of that before we study the abomination of desolation. So what does desolation mean? Well, it means to make empty. Another definition of desolation, look at verse two. So go all the way back up to verse two, same chapter. It says this, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ye have seen all the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem and upon all the cities of Judah. And behold, this day they are a desolation and no man dwelleth therein. Okay, so abomination means what? It means hate, okay? So abomination literally is something that God hates. It's something that God abores and desolation is to make empty. And so the question is, what is the abomination? What is gonna be made desolate or who is gonna be made desolate? We're gonna get into that in great detail next week. And it does kind of fly in the face of the traditional view that, well, the abomination of desolation is the Antichrist goes in and makes all the Jews desolate. And that's where people kind of tend to leave it. That's where most of Christianity leaves it. And of course it means much more than that. Now go to Revelation 13. We're getting close to being done. I realize that this stuff can get kind of dry, kind of mind boggling, but you have to understand it is so important that we study Bible prophecy as it is written, okay? Very, very important. So now we've got an excellent definition of what those words mean, abomination and desolation. So to make empty. Now, I wanna give you basically what is the abomination of desolation. And we'll talk about it in greater detail next week, who's made desolate and all that stuff. So again, this is just to get the mind wet, okay? This is just to basically, it's like going out in the woods and getting a log and saying, we're gonna carve something out of it, okay? We're gonna build something out of this, okay? That's kind of how we're starting this off here. Revelation 13, we're gonna start reading in verse number 11. And we're gonna be introduced to the false prophet or as it's described, the second beast, okay? We don't have time to read the whole chapter, but look at verse number 11. So this is after the first beast or the antichrist gets his wound. So during the tribulation period, okay? He's gonna get a wound, he's gonna recover from that womb and that's gonna prompt this other beast to rise up. Now let's study him for a second because he's crucial in the abomination of desolation. Look at verse number 11. It says, and I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. And he had two horns like a what? Like a lamb and spake as a dragon. This is who we refer to as the false prophet. He has two horns like a lamb, okay? So he's like Christianity, he's like religious, okay? That's what that's in reference to, but he speaks as a dragon. There are several people alive today that are very influential that fit this bill, but I wouldn't say that they're the false prophet, okay? False prophets, that's what they do. They have a cloak of religiousness. They have a cloak of Christianity. Joel Osteen, easy guy to grab, okay? He's, oh, he talks about Jesus. He says things that are true, right? He has some good insights, he really does. A lot of these people do, okay? Not saying you should listen to him, I'm just saying it's a fact, it's true. But they speak as a dragon. So the things they don't tell you, the things that they spin slightly, it's the subtleties. And of course the false gospel that we all recognize, okay? That kind of fits into speaking as a dragon. But this beast is on a whole nother level here. Look at verse 12. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him. Now here it is. And causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast whose deadly wound was healed. So the false prophet, what is his role? His role is to point to the first beast, to point to the antichrist. And he has power, he has a lot of the same powers that the antichrist has. Look at verse 13. And he doeth great wonders, okay, great wonders. Again, why are we warned in Matthew to watch out for these signs and wonders? Well, because of this guy right here. Verse 13, and he doeth great wonders so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. It's kind of funny, well this isn't funny, but I've heard that people have this theory that the fires in Hawaii were started by a laser. I heard that the Paradise fire in California a few years ago was started by a laser, could be. The military does have that technology. But this, again, isn't gonna be like that. Like it's gonna deceive people. Like at will he'll be able to somehow call down fire and to be a show or to devour things in the sight of man. Verse 14, and look at this. And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by means of those miracles, okay? So he's gonna have these powers and this ability to do these miracles that are gonna be different from what we read about today. Like, oh, technology today and the holograms. They're gonna be able to do some real demonic stuff here. And it's gonna be intense and people are gonna be like, whoa, this isn't like AI. This is on a whole nother level, okay? And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth, verse 14, by the means of those miracles, which he had power to do in the sight of the beast. So these two are like one, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make, and here it is, an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live. So people are gonna look at this false prophet. They're gonna be like, wow, he's got all these powers. He's got these miracles that he can do, but he's humble because he's not trying to get the glory. He's pointing to the first beast, right? Just like Christ, right? He's not thinking of himself. He puts other people before his own self. And therefore, we need to reach that level. We need to follow this guy here and he's got the truth. So it says that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live, verse 15, and he had power. Who's he? The second beast, the false prophet. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast. Okay, now this is where we can speculate. And it's fun to sit around and talk. What do you think this is gonna look like? I don't really know at this point, but somehow he has power to give life to this image. Okay, and this image is of the beast and that the image of the beast should both speak and cause, this is the scary part, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. Okay, that is the abomination that is going to make desolate. And of course, we're gonna break this down as well as 2 Thessalonians next week. But on a very basic level, this image here is the abomination. Okay, it's an abomination to God and it makes desolate. And hopefully you can see who's making desolate. Well, it's making us desolate because we're saved. We're not gonna take this thing. Read Revelation 14 on your own time. Real believers are not gonna take the mark of the beast. So somehow, verse 15, he has power to give life to this image, image of the beast. Again, it's not gonna be like just your hologram that pops up and talks. Okay, it might kind of look like that in the future. I don't know. But somehow he's gonna be able to give it like its own thought, like it's gonna be able to somehow read your thoughts, which might be a good indication why Jesus told them in Judea to go to the mountains. You know, technology, I don't know. You know, it's harder. Life is always harder in the mountains. It's always harder to find people in the mountains. I mean, think, how did people in flip-flops and thick wool coats really give the United States military a very difficult time for 20 years? Okay, there's something about being in the mountains that is just detrimental to modern day societies. So just keep that in mind. Verse 16, and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads. Now we've just read a few verses here and there's already like weeks worth of stuff we could talk about here. So if you got all these questions, good. Go home, study, read these things. Let's talk about it, okay? But one thing I do want to point out here, and I kind of made mention of this, I think it was on Wednesday. Yeah, we've got the elite ruling class today, okay? There are, you know, your Jeff Bezos and people that are probably more powerful behind the scenes that we don't know of than him. But these people, we shouldn't be too worried about them because they're gonna fall for this. There's gonna be a shift in everything that you see, okay? Yeah, we always like to point to those guys because they're easy to grab and we hear about the stuff they're doing and their visions and so on and so forth. But this Antichrist, when he comes on the scene, he wants total worship, total domination. And his false prophet is gonna help him attain that, okay? So what I'm saying is these groups out there, these elites, they're gonna be chumps. They're gonna be falling right in line here and they're gonna get in line, they're gonna take this mark because what does it say in verse 16? He causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in the right hand or in their foreheads. And of course, we don't know exactly what that looks like. Some people say it was a tattoo. Some people say it's a microchip, okay? Probably something along those lines, but you'll know when this is the requirement, okay? Now, I'm bringing this up because there's a lot of technology out there right now being developed and even being implemented that kind of seems like this. You know, I heard that Amazon, I think it's Amazon, that has this device where it can literally scan through your hand and like read your veins and your setup and so there's no need for a microchip because everybody's hand is unique. You know, maybe that will be like the mark of the beast. I don't know, but here's the thing. What if your employer implements this, okay? And they say, well, you can do it in your left hand. You know what you're gonna have? People say, how's the mark of the beast? People are saying the vaccine's the mark of the beast and it's not, okay? Now, it is kind of a type of the mark of the beast if you ask me, but again, a subject for another day. Now, when I worked for the government, this was back, I wanna say 2009, 2010, they had this brilliant idea that they were gonna track all of us, okay? Track all of us and everything that we did, everything that we went and they had these little chips, they're about this big and they put them inside of our hard hats and said, ah, this is great. Now, we can tell how long your breaks are. Now, we can tell if you're actually where you say you're gonna be and so on and so forth and I thought, man, that is insane. I do not like this. I don't like where this is going and we had people like, this is the mark of the beast. No, it's not the mark of the beast, okay? It's kind of reminiscent. It's kind of similar and basically, what we wound up doing is we just took them out and we would go down into the dry dock and just stick them on a firebox or something and then we'd take a break for like three hours and then go back and get them and then in the meetings, they're like, you guys are great, man. You're super productive. We don't even need these. That's literally what happened. It's like, yeah, great. We got rid of them. That's, these people are dumb but unfortunately, this beast system's not gonna be that stupid, okay? That's more of our modern government for you. So, let's move on. Verse 17, then we're gonna go to 2 Thessalonians and we'll be done. It says this, and that no man might buy or sell save he that have the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name and of course, we could talk about that all day. Don't have time. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter number two and we're gonna do one passage very quickly in Matthew 24 and then we'll be done. So, I wanna give you just a quick preview now of what we're gonna kinda be talking about next week. We're gonna break some of these things down. So, of course, 2 Thessalonians two and verse one. Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto him that you be not soon shaken to mind or troubled, neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter from us as that the day of Christ is at hand. Okay, so what is Paul doing here? Well, he's trying to prepare us to not be ignorant. Concerning what? Concerning the day of the Lord, Christ's return which will be after the tribulation, after the great tribulation but before God's wrath. Verse three, let no man deceive you by any means and that's why we're studying these. Okay, we don't want to be deceived by any means for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first and look at this, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. So when you do see Revelation 13 go down, okay, you're gonna, okay, now you know beyond a shadow of a doubt where you're at prophetically and what is gonna happen. Okay, but look at verse four. This guy, this antichrist, what does he do? He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. We're gonna spend a lot of time next week talking about that and what that means and I'm telling you right now, the temple that the Jews are building is not the temple of God, it is not. We are the temple of God. Jesus said his body was the temple. We are the body of Christ, okay, that is not the temple of God and look, I'm telling you, the Zionist tentacles are deep and they go deep down into prophecy and we're gonna take them out and remove them completely. Okay, so make sure you're well rested next week, bring a pen because it's gonna be intense. I'm just warning you right now, look at verse five. Remember ye not that when I was with you, I told you these things. Now pay attention to this. Verse six, and now ye know, look at this next word, what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. Okay, so we see there's a what that withholdeth that he, meaning the son of perdition, might be revealed in his time. So we have this what. Now look at verse seven. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work, now look at this, he who now letteth will let until he be taken out of the way. How do we have a what and a he? How does that make sense? How do we have a what and a he, what is this? What's going on here? Well, I'll tell you next week. Look at verse eight. Verse eight. Then, and then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Hey, verse nine, even him who's coming is after the working of Satan with all power, signs, and look at this, lying wonders, okay? These wonders, these signs are lies, they're deceivableness. Verse 10 tells you that. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. So what is the point of God unleashing his wrath upon this earth? It's because of the gospel. It's not because some guy stopped some sacrifice in a temple, it's not, it's not, okay? And I'm gonna prove that to you 100% next week. Verse 11, and for this cause, God shall send them. What is this cause? The gospel, the fact that the world rejected the gospel that they might be saved. For this cause, God shall send them strong delusion. Okay? Strong delusion that they should believe a lie. Now there's a lot of things like that going on right now. A lot of lies that seem strong, that are delusional, that people are believing, but this whole nother level. Verse 12, that they all might be damned. Well, that can't be Bible, that must be the Quran. It must be the Quran you're reading here, Pastor. What are you talking about? No, this is the word of God, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So next week, get ready, we're gonna come back here, we're gonna take this apart. Last but not least, Matthew 24, and we're done. Matthew 24, look at verse 22. Talking about the great tribulation, we're gonna end on this note here. Matthew 24, verse 22. It says, and except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved. You know, and I try to bring this up to these people all the time that say they're Satanists. It's like, what's the whole point? Okay, the devil, don't you, it's like, don't you understand the devil wants to kill everybody, saved and lost, because man is made in the image of God and he hates God and makes sense that he wants to destroy God's creation. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved, but for the elect's sake, those days should be shortened, okay? Now, this is where people are like, oh, but the Jew, it's for the Jew, because the Jew, they're the elect. No, believers, it's us, it's Christianity, real Christianity, so it's for our sake that those days shall be shortened. Verse 23, then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or there, what are we supposed to do? Believe it or not. Verse 24, for there shall arise false Christs, false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders in so much. Now, here it is. If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect, okay? And the problem I have today is that a lot of these new evangelicals think they're elect, but they're not. So that means this delusion is gonna be so strong that they're gonna fall for it. Now, they're not gonna fall, in my opinion, I don't believe they're gonna fall if the Antichrist goes to the temple and stops the daily sacrifice. I think they're gonna be like, ah, yep, that's it. Of course, the Jew, right? And they would be on board with that. They would understand that. So I don't think that the way the abomination of desolation is actually set up is literally according to the way it's traditionally taught. I think it's gonna look a little bit different than that, and that's my opinion, and I can back it up. So enjoy that next week. Verse 25, behold, I have told you before, wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth. Behold, he is in the secret chambers. Believe it not, those words mean something, and they mean something much bigger than you might be thinking, and of course, we will get into that next week, and we're gonna have to just stop there because this is just a lot of information. But to sum everything up, okay, just remember the order, okay? We want you to have a good understanding of the order and definitions. The last seven years before the end of the world, not before Christ's return, but before the end of the world, before the millennium, you've got about three and a half years of tribulation, and then you have the great tribulation, which I wanna say is roughly 75 days, okay? And we'll get into that, but after that is the day of the Lord, okay? It's the day of the Lord, Christ comes back, we are literally out, we get caught up together with him to meet him in the air, and then what happens is there's a space of time, and after that quick space of time, God literally is going to begin three and a half years of pouring out his wrath upon this earth, and why does he do that? Because those are gonna be strongly the days of vengeance on this world, to punish them that did not obey the gospel, had pleasure and unrighteousness, and did not desire the love of the truth that they might be saved. That is the whole reason for that. He's essentially gonna give them what they want. He's gonna give them hell on earth, and we'll get into that. I realize this is a lot. Again, it's a lot, and it does require that you study these things on your own as well. So, let's stop right there and have a word of prayer, and then we'll be dismissed. Dear Lord, thank you so much for your truths and for keeping us safe and protecting us, Lord. I just pray that you would help us to use these things to encourage others and to take comfort in them, and we just pray that you bless the food after the service and the soul winning today, and we thank you again, Lord, for all that you do. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.