Behold, He Is Coming

As you know, we're continuing our study of the Olivet Discourse, which again, to remind you, is contained within the text of two chapters in Matthew.

Chapter 24 and 25, and my plan is to finish chapter 24 next Wednesday. And so pray for me as I try to do that.

That leaves chapter 25 unfinished, and perhaps there will be some very capable guest preacher who might just take that up for us.

We'll see about that. I'm not going to make any commitments to you because I don't have one from him yet. But anyway, you're saying, well, what are you talking about? I'm not going to tell you.

So I've said more than I should have. But I am going to make it through to the end of chapter 24. Not tonight. We're going to get a pretty good chunk there.

And then that'll leave some for next Wednesday, and we'll finish it up then, if the Lord gives us next Wednesday. Okay? We want to be presumptuous. So I want to read the passage.

Our passage for tonight will be verses 29 to 35. Matthew 24. 29 to 35. So you can look at your Bibles if you want to there or listen as I read it.

Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the days we've just been talking about or Jesus has been foretelling about.

Immediately after those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

And by the way, those who see the passages previous to this passage and see it as something already done, that it was completed there back there in 70 AD, and the destruction of the temple, and those who have that interpretation have a really hard time explaining verses 29, the passages I just read.

Because certainly these things described by the Lord have not occurred. You can't say they have. I guess there are some who try to.

Let me go ahead. Verse 32. Now learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender, puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.

So you also, when you see all these things, what things? The things he's been talking about. When you see all these things, know that it is near.

What's near? The second coming. The coming of the Lord. It's near at the doors. Even at the doors. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.

Heaven and earth will pass away. My words will by no means pass away. Which is a passage that can apply not only to the words that Jesus taught his disciples here in chapter 24, but the whole of scripture.

His words will never pass away. All right. All right. So you notice perhaps on your handout, if you looked at it, that I've chosen to entitle my teaching or this lesson tonight, Behold, he is coming.

In fact, I really could entitle it, Behold, he's here. Because what we're going to study tonight really are things that are not only going to happen before, just before, but the actual coming.

So really, I guess I should change it to Behold, he's here. He's here. Not for us, okay? This is all still future for us, of course.

But I chose that title primarily because of the passage that we have in Revelation chapter 1 verse 7, which is a passage that is focused on the same event that we're looking at here in Matthew chapter 24.

That's the second coming. And Revelation 1 verse 7 says, Behold, he is coming with clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him.

That would be a reference, of course, to the Jews. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him, even so. Amen. Amen.

So behold, he is coming. Or behold, that is for the generation to, that generation Jesus is speaking to here in this passage. For them, he's here.

He's here. He's even at the door. Now, remember that everything Jesus says in this discourse, at least this is my view.

I always have to add that little disclaimer. Not everyone sees this passage the same way I do. But from my perspective, my understanding, everything that Jesus says in this discourse from the very beginning of it is all future.

And it is essentially an answer to the disciples' question. Remember, a two-part question. I want to keep reminding us of that because it's good to kind of keep that in our minds as we work our way through this discourse and we see how Jesus is answering their questions.

Two-part question. They said, way back there in verse 3 of this chapter, Tell us, when will these things be? All right, so they want to know the timing of it.

Right? When will these things be? And then the second part of the question, And what will be the sign of your coming? Your coming.

Now, forget what their mindset was about all of that. These are valid questions. They're questions that we're still asking today. What is or when will these things be?

And what will be the sign of your coming of the end of the age? Your coming, the end of the age, which is the same thing. So two questions. When and what?

And remember, Jesus is answering and has been answering here for a number of verses. Nearly all of chapter 24 is an answer to the second question.

He answers the what question. Not the when question, but the what question. What will be the sign? That's the key word here. The sign. What will be the sign of your coming?

And actually, as we've seen, Jesus answers that question not with a sign, but many signs. There are many signs. And culminating to the supreme sign, which we're going to be looking at talking about here tonight.

So that's the question. It's the what question. And he answers that one first. And we see clearly in the passage that these two events, these are simultaneous events.

His coming and the end of the age. Those go together. Because when he comes, that will mark the end of the age. This age. This evil age.

That will be the end of it. All right. So what about the when question? I mean, that's what I'm interested in, aren't you? Right. What about that?

I'm sure they were more interested in that than they were about the what. The what. They very quickly went to the when. You know, when is this going to take place?

That's what we want to know. I was reading a story about a Catholic priest who lived back in the 19th century.

And this Catholic priest, through his study of scripture and prayer, at least that's what he claimed, he came to the conclusion that the second coming was going to take place in 1847.

Now, of course, we know it didn't happen then, right? But this was the strong conclusion he had come to, 1847. That's when Jesus is coming back again. And so he wrote a book about it.

And he wanted to have it published. But he's a Catholic. And so he had to have approval, a very official approval from the church at Rome in order to publish his book.

And he did get it. He eventually got the approval to write the book, to publish the book. And they said that he could publish it in 1848. So, you know, that's what we want to know when, don't we?

We want to know when. But, and Jesus does get to that first question, the when question. Though his answer, again, is certainly not what they were wanting. It's not what we want.

In fact, you remember, and we'll get to this next week. Because next week, we'll look at, I guess, really the only answer we're going to get about the when of it.

But remember what he said. Well, let me remind you of what he said. You can look there in verse 36. But of that day and hour, no one knows. Or there's his answer to the when.

And no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but my Father only. And, you know, I can almost hear the disciples groan when they hear that. You know, we have it kind of that way too.

All right, so getting to the passage, there are four things that I want us to see here. And better get to it. Four things. I'll name all four of them here at the beginning.

And then you can start filling in your blanks. But the first one is the climax of the sorrows. Climax of the sorrows. Jesus, remember, called them the beginning of sorrows.

Those things are going to be happening very rapidly and increasing in severity, leading up to the climax. The climax.

The climax of the sorrows. That's the first thing we'll see. Second, the coming of the sign. Second, the coming of the sign. Third, the collecting of the saints.

Actually, we can even add the sinners too, though Jesus doesn't mention that in this passage. He does that elsewhere. And then, fourth, the certainty of the scriptures.

So these four things. Four things that we'll look at. Here's number one. The climax of the sorrows. Jesus says in verse 29, Immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

The stars will fall from heaven. And the powers of the heavens. We could say the universe. In fact, we might even say all of creation.

The powers of all of creation will be shaken. All right. So there are two things to notice here. First of all, the chronology of this time. There's a word about the chronology.

The sequence of events. Verse 29, he just simply says, Immediately after. That's a word about chronology. The timing of things.

The sequence of things. Immediately after. After what? The tribulation. The tribulation of those days. All right. So it sounds a little vague, but it's really very specific.

It's specific based upon, you know, what we've already studied in chapter 24. So the coming of the Lord will take place at the end of the great tribulation.

Verse 21. That's what he's talking about. Immediately after. So the coming of the Lord will immediately follow those days. Those days.

The great tribulation. It's a reference to, not just to the tribulation as a whole, but more specifically to the last three and a half years of the tribulation, which he called, in verse 21, the great tribulation.

Which, remember, is inaugurated or commences with the abomination that causes desolation. By the Antichrist.

So it's a reference to the tribulation. And so what he's talking about here, this is going to happen immediately after all of these things I've just said will happen.

Leading up to it. Satanic activity. Almost unbridled satanic activity in the last three and a half years. Most of it worked working through his surrogate here on the planet, the beast, the Antichrist.

Going to be unparalleled destruction in the world. Going to be unimaginable upheaval in the natural order of things.

The natural world. I mean, all these things he has foretold. Said these things are going to happen. Persecution. Unrestrained persecution of believers.

Those who have come to Christ during the tribulation period. Prophetic. A lot of false prophetic activity. False prophets. False messiahs. And in general, just an unequal tribulation.

Something that's never happened before nor ever will happen again. And of course, it won't happen again because when it's over, it's over. Everything's over. I did include, I think, in your notes a quote from John MacArthur.

And I think this kind of puts it together. He wrote, With the abomination of desolation, Satan will inaugurate the great tribulation, desecrating the restored temple and slaughtering every Jew and Christian he can lay his hands on.

That's why Jesus said, flee to the mountains. The Lord's coming to reign will take place at the conclusion of this time of tribulation. So that's the chronology of this time.

Second thing under this, under letter A, or under point number one, rather, would be the catastrophe of this time.

Or you, if you don't like that word, the calamity of this time. All right? Verse 29. And really, it's kind of difficult to find a word that actually describes what he says is going to happen there in verse 29 at least.

I couldn't find one that began with the letter C. All right? So, catastrophe, the calamity. The sun will be darkened, blacked out. The moon will not give its light.

I guess we could say that stands to reason. I mean, the moon is a reflection of the sun. The stars will fall from heaven. Difficult to know exactly what is meant by that.

But I think the next, last part of this explains why suddenly many stars will, their light will be gone.

The powers of the heavens will be shaken. All right, so, we could say that the people living during this time are going to be witnessing, not the end of all things, but the beginning of the end.

The beginning of complete destruction of the universe. People during this time, at the close of the tribulation period, just as Jesus comes, just before he comes, will be witnessing very quickly.

I mean, this is going to happen rapidly. We're not talking about something that's going to take place over time. Like that. And people are going to be witnessing horrendous things, unexplainable things, which will really be, will define the beginning of the complete destruction of the universe.

Now, they won't witness the complete destruction of it. That's not going to take place until after the millennium, thousand-year reign of Christ. And then, everything will be destroyed.

But everything... Now, think about this. About what it would be like living during this time. Everything that we trust, that we've always trusted in this life, in the creation, is going to fail, going to begin to fail.

I mean, what do we trust? What things do we trust that we never even think about? The ground we stand on, and even that, here in Oklahoma lately, has got a little bit shaky.

But how about the sun? I mean, do we ever even contemplate the possibility that come morning, the sun is going to shine?

We don't even think about it. I mean, we trust that that's going to happen no matter what. And therefore, at nighttime, the moon is going to reflect its light. I mean, there's going to be light from the sun and light from the moon.

But all that's going to begin to fail us, or fail those who are living then. And the stars, you know, unless it's a cloudy night, we just know they're going to be there.

We don't ever give it a thought. Now, you know, if we think scientifically, we might know that some of those stars that we see the light of have burned out maybe a long time ago.

Who knows how long? You know, because light takes a while to travel and so forth. But we trust these things, and we just take them for granted. Can you imagine how unsettling this would be?

That the sun is darkened, and the moon is darkened, and the stars are falling out of the sky. And when you look at Luke's account, parallel account, in chapter 21 and verse 25, the tides here on earth are also going to be all out of whack.

And so many other things. And the entire universe. The entire universe. And so when Jesus says the powers of the heavens will be shaken, what does he mean?

Well, he's referring to the unseen powers of the universe. What would that be? What holds everything together? That, too, we take for granted.

You know, that our globe, our earth, is going to spin like it always has, and perfectly, and in perfect sync with the other things that are revolving around our universe, around our sun.

The moon is going to have its orbit just like it always does. And beyond our solar system, into the galaxy, and the entire universe, made up of trillions and trillions, numberless numbers of galaxies.

And all of those things, though we can't really, it's imperceptible to us, they're all moving. But they're all moving in perfect sync with one another. There is such order in the universe.

Such order that, you know, even in our own solar system, that we can fire a rocket, a spaceship, to go to the moon, and we know exactly where the moon's going to be.

You know, at the right, it's all mathematical. You see, who is responsible for that order? Well, God is. In him all things consist.

They all hold together by him. And so, when it talks about the heavens, the powers of the heaven being shaken, he's really talking about that unseen power, his power, that holds it all together and keeps it all moving in perfect order.

And some of that's going to begin to kind of fall apart. Not because God is failing, but because God is allowing this. And eventually, he will destroy all of this with intense heat.

All right, so, that said, you can well imagine that the lost world, that is the world of lost humanity, they're going to be overcome with fear.

Right? I mean, right? I mean, even for us to read this and describe it and think about this kind of stuff, how it kind of fills us with a little bit of fears.

And again, imagine how unsettling that would be, more than just unsettling. They'd be terrified. Luke 21. Again, this is a parallel count.

21, 25, 28. And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars, and on earth, distress of nations with perplexity.

You bet. The sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. So this is a parallel passage. Same thing that is, excuse me, recorded for us here in Matthew 24. A few more details.

But now, when the true believers, now I've just said what the world of lost mankind, they're going to be overcome with fear. But when true believers see these things, and because they have the scriptures that Jesus has given, and they know these things are going to happen, and they know what it means when these things do happen, and so when the true believers see these things happening, they will be glad.

They will be glad. Why? Because they know. Well, as Luke 21, 28 says, when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.

So, you know, as horrendous as these things may be, and terrible and unimaginable, you know, if you're a believer at that very moment, you're going to be glad, because then you'll be able to look up, because this is going to happen immediately, and Jesus will be coming.

We'll have returnees at the door. All right, so that's number one, the climax of the sorrows. Number two, the coming of the sign. The coming of the sign.

Verse 30, then, that's another reference to chronology, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

I want you to notice a number of things about this sign. First of all, the number of the sign. Not a numeric number, but the point being, is this the only sign?

Well, it's not. He says, then the sign, but Jesus has been talking about signs all along, hasn't he? And so this sign is the climactic sign of a long list of lesser signs given by Jesus in the chapter.

It's the last one. The last biggest one. The biggest one. The supreme sign. But he's been giving other signs. You know, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecution of believers, false prophets, false messiahs, lawlessness, preaching the gospel to all the nations.

That's the only positive one in the whole bunch. Abomination of desolation, great tribulation, false messiahs, all these things. These are all signs. And Jesus said they're birth pangs. They are the beginning of sorrows.

These are the things that are going to take place. When you see these things happening, you know that I'm coming. And so then when we get here to verse 30, then we have the last sign.

And it's the biggest one. Really the sign that all the other signs have been pointing to, leading to.

So that's the number of the signs. The next one is the nature of the sign. Or letter B in your outline. The nature of the sign. What's this sign going to be?

He says the sign, it's the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven. And, you know, depending on what you do, how you interpret the grammar and order of words, actually really more specifically, the grammar itself.

I'm not going to get in to that tall grass here tonight. But depending on how you interpret that, that will, you know, reveal to you or give you understanding as to what this sign is.

But actually, the sign is and will be Christ Himself. Not a sign of Christ, but Christ Himself.

Not a sign that will accompany Him or point to Him, but He's the sign. Even though I would tell you that some of the early church fathers, they speculated quite a bit about this sign, what it would be, and many of them came up with the idea that it would be a large cross in the sky.

Now, you know, there's nothing in the passage that suggests such a thing, but that's what they could do. included many of them. Some have thought that the sign will actually, is actually a reference to the glory that will accompany the Lord when He comes.

And that, I mean, there will be that. The Shekinah that always accompanies the glorified Lord. And so, some have said that's what it is, but really, I think the sign is Christ Himself.

That's the nature of the sign. Again, I would refer to Luke 21, 28, which says, Now, when these things begin to happen, these catastrophic things, look up, lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.

He's the sign. That's Jesus, the final and supreme sign of the end of the age. And then, I started to say third, but actually it's C on your outline, the nightmare of the sign.

It's going to be a nightmare for some people, a whole lot of people, and specifically the Jews, I think. But, he says, And then all the tribes, and that word tribes is important, the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven.

Now, there is a sense in which, I mean, at face value, talking about all the inhabitants of the earth. But, for most of the inhabitants of the earth, and I would add, especially the unbelieving Jews, His coming will be a nightmare, at least initially.

They will be aghast, when they see Him. And why would that be? Because, because they know who He is. I mean, when they see Him, they all, oh, no.

It was Jesus all along. And my forefathers, they crucified the guy, you know. And all these years of my life, I have said, it's not Jesus, I'm still waiting for the Messiah.

And then here, here, here, it's going to be a nightmare. It would be worse than just, a surprise. Okay. In fact, Revelation 6, verses 12 to 17, I looked, when He opened the sixth seal, behold, there was a great earthquake.

And the sun became black, as sackcloth of hair. And the moon became, like blood. And the stars of heaven, fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs, when it's shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded as a scroll, when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves, and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him, who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Imagine the horror of that. The words, all the tribes of the earth, may, may be a specific reference to the tribes of Israel.

I wouldn't be dogmatic about it. But, you know, there's some other passages that may lend some credence to that. And the very word tribes, not the word that's normally translated nations.

You would almost expect that. But tribes of the earth, and could be a reference to the twelve tribes of Israel. That is, those Jews who are alive at the time.

They're still, you know, part of their respective tribes, the twelve tribes of Israel. And, if that's the case, and Jesus may be referring to the prophecy of Zechariah, chapter 12, I think I put that in your notes.

And I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me, whom they pierced.

By the way, it's strange how the Jews reject the obvious meaning of that passage today. You know, I don't know how they interpret it. They certainly don't interpret it as referring to Jesus.

Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for him as one grieves for a firstborn. In that day, there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadad Ramon, in the plain of Megiddo.

You have to know what that is to know just how bad a mourning it is. But, anyway. All right, so if that's true, if that's true, then Jesus is referring to that time, the Bible says, is going to happen when all Israel, that is, all those who are alive at the time, will be saved.

Their eyes will suddenly be opened, and they will be saved. It's not just because their eyes are open, and they see him. It's because of the supernatural work of God in their hearts.

They will be saved. All Israel will be saved. Romans 11, 25, For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

Blindness in part, because many Jews have been saved, but not the majority. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written. The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

So he will do that, and he will save them. The other thing is what I would call the nobility of the sign. The nobility of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

You know, at the very least, what is this revealing to us? I think his second coming will be dramatically different from his first coming, right?

I mean dramatically different. His first coming, he came in humility. Second coming, he will come in victory. His first coming, he came as a suffering servant.

In the second coming, he will come as sovereign king over all kings, king of kings. So the nobility of the sign. So the very least, it means that, but it means more than that. Jesus will come in power.

He will come in power. And I mean active power. Displaying his power to accomplish a number of things.

And I've listed some of those there and the references that go with them. To conquer, power to conquer and destroy all of his enemies.

He'll do that immediately. There will be, you know, an attempt to fight against him, but it's not going to be a battle. He'll just lay them waste.

He'll conquer and destroy all of his enemies. And I'm talking about both flesh and blood enemies as well as spiritual enemies. He will completely conquer Antichrist, but also Satan and his demons and Revelation 19, 20.

And to make an end of sin and bring in everlasting righteousness. This is the power of our coming king, Daniel 9, 24. Also to restore the earth to its original perfect state that we have never known.

How it was originally created before the fall, before sin entered the world, entered the creation. It's been groaning ever since for this very time, this time of restoration.

And so with great power, he will do that. Also to eliminate all natural disasters on the earth. No more tornadoes or hurricanes or floods or droughts or famines.

No more starvation. Zechariah 14, 8. And then also to reveal his glory and majesty as the supreme ruler. He will rule the world.

And there won't be any, you know, any civil disobedience against the king of kings. It's not going to be, you know, not going to be any kind of uprisings and, you know, conspiracies and people working behind scenes to usurp him as people are doing today, every day with our leaders.

All right, so then the climax of the sorrows, the coming of the sign. I'm going to hurry up. In fact, I'm already at the end of my time. Number three, the collecting of the sinners and saints. I'll put it in that order, but verse 31 says, and he will send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet and they will gather to gather his elect from the four winds, that would be north, south, east, west, from one end of heaven to the other.

That is the sky, under the sky. I'm not talking about the heaven, the abode of God, but the sky, the heavens. Now, both types of people, tribulation sinners and saints will be gathered up by God's angelic harvesters, his angels.

So, on the one hand, the collection of the unrepentant sinners, which Jesus does not mention here in this particular passage, we find this in Matthew 13, starting with verse 41.

The Son of Man will send out his angels. By the way, this is the parable of the wheat and the tares. You remember that. The Son of Man will send out his angels and 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 and gnashing of teeth. So, it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just and cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

So, we're going to deal with the sinners. Not going to be any sinners living on into the millennial kingdom. It will all come to an end there at the end of the tribulation. But what about those who are saved at his coming?

And not just those who are alive, but even those in the grave, those who have been saved during the tribulation. It will be the collection of the redeemed saints, his elect. So, the angels will collect them from wherever they are under the heavens or the skies.

Remember, a lot of them will be hiding out. You know, for three and a half years, they've been perhaps hiding in forests and jungles and caves and wherever they could find a place to hide out from the Antichrist, the threats of the Antichrist.

And these angels will collect them from wherever they are. If they're out in the open or whether they're in hiding, whether they're alive on the earth or whether they're dead in the graves, it will collect all of them from all around the globe.

And then one more thing quickly. The certainty of the scriptures and really more than just the scriptures, but it culminates with this. And so, Jesus sums it up with a word about the certainty of these things.

And three things. First, the analogy from science. The analogy from science. Verse 32. Now, learn this parable from the fig tree.

That's a real thing. So, understand the science of fig trees here. And you do understand them, he's basically saying. He says, when its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.

So, he's talking about something that's commonly known. Everybody knew this. Nobody would argue this. It's a sure thing. I mean, not just something you know about, but it's also one of those sure ways to know that the summer is coming.

All right? When you look at that and you see that happening, then you know. All right? My house, I've got a redbud tree. And maybe some of you have red buds. And it's starting to get all red.

And I know what that tells me. All right? That doesn't mean we won't have snow tomorrow. But I know summer's coming. I mean, it tells you that. You know that. It's undeniable. It works that way every time.

And so Jesus said, you know that. And so he's saying that the signs that I've given you, the signs of my coming are just as reliable. In fact, more reliable.

My redbud tree might die some winter and then, you know, it's not a good sign for me to know that summer's coming. But it's a sure sign.

And really, you can also say that the same God has ordained both things. You know, that the fig tree would signal the coming of summer. And he has also ordained that these signs, these events that are going to take place are, they've been ordained by God to reveal that Jesus is coming.

And even at the door. So he says in verse 33, so you also, when you see all these things, the signs, know, you know it, that it, the second coming is near at the doors.

B, I've given you a word that's not a word, a surety of the Savior. There is an insurance company called a surety, but it's not really a word. So I just apologize in advance for that.

But I could have put surety, but it just didn't fit with my alliteration. You understand that, don't you? Okay. I'm not above making words up. Just to make it work, you know.

I guess you know that too. Verse 34. I am praying for your next pastor that maybe he might not be as slave to alliteration as I am. Verse 34.

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation, the generation living in these future times, by the way, is what he's talking about. I'm not talking about the disciples' generation. It's not possible that any of these things, these things happened in their lifetime.

They did not. Especially these that marked the culmination of the time. I'm not talking about our generation. I'm not talking about a generation in the broadest sense. You know, the generation of believers.

I'm talking about the generation who were alive at the time. So, really, you can say all of this stuff is going to happen in one generation. And it's that generation that generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

And then one more, the authority of Scripture. Verse 35. Heaven and earth will pass away. By the way, it will pass away one day after the millennium.

And heaven in the sense of the universe. The heavens and the earth. But my words will by no means pass away. They will by no means pass away until they're all fulfilled is the implication.

And a couple of passages I threw in there. Luke 16, 17. It's easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle. Which is a very small little mark, little character in the Hebrew language.

Jot and tittle, two smallest little marks in that language. in that alphabet. It says, easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for even one little tittle of the law to fail.

And law in the broader sense of his word. And then John 10, 35, the scripture cannot be broken. Cannot be broken.

That is put an end to. I mean the word literally means to destroy. The scripture cannot be broken. So the authority of scripture.

So you can just, you know, for those who are living in this time and they have read the word of God because they'll have it and they have read what Jesus revealed in chapter 24 of his gospel according to Matthew.

And they'll know these things are coming and when they read them they, that they can count on and be sure the certainty of it because God's word cannot be broken.

And that really applies for everything he has said. The things he has promised in scripture. Those things can't be broken. The things he has commanded us to do apply even though they were given you know, several thousand years ago because the scripture cannot be broken.

They still apply today. So it's not the culture that decides on what should be obeyed and what applies today. It's the ageless, timeless word of God that cannot be broken.

The ageless word of God The ageless word of God Thank you.