This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our Look Through Matthew chapter 24. This is day three of our
Look Through this chapter. We've been seeing what Jesus has to say, especially
in the middle of this chapter about not being deceived.

Don't be deceived by people who say that they're Christ when you're afraid of
world situations. And don't be deceived by signs where people say, "Oh, God has
to come at this time," or "He can't come at this time," based on their opinion
of those signs. One of the questions the disciples asked Jesus was, "What are
the signs of your coming at the end of the age?

" And through this passage, and you can also see this in the book of Revelation,
there are three types of signs to be aware of. You've got to understand the
signs. When you drive down a freeway, you see all kinds of signs that give you
directions and distances.

The Bible tells us that God has set up clear signposts for our world, for UNI's
believers, to see that Jesus is coming again. And some of these signs can be
seen today. Others are coming later.

These three types of signs are, number one, signs pointing to the end. Jesus
calls those the beginning of birth pains. Number two, signs that immediately
precede the end time events.

And number three, signs that accompany the end time events. So let's first of
all look at signs pointing to the end, the beginning of birth pains. There are a
number of things that Jesus said would happen before His second coming.

And they'd be happening from His first coming all the way to His second, the
beginning of birth pains. These are signs that you're not going to just see at
the very end, but these are signs that have shown believers for 2,000 years that
this world as it is, is not God's final plan. These are the signs that you can
see now, the signs of the deterioration of this world, the inadequacy of this
world.

For thousands of years we've been able to look at these signs again, signs again
and again and again, and say this world is not as stable as it sometimes seems.
Jesus could be coming again at any moment. And we looked at many of these signs
yesterday, false messiahs and wars and earthquakes and persecution and falling
away.

All of these are signs of the fact that this world is not meant to last. Jesus
is coming again. God's going to establish a new heaven and a new earth.

And Jesus here is telling us these signs because He wants us to be aware of
them. He wants these signs to affect our lives. Let me tell you something a lot
of husbands don't like.

They don't like it when their wives point out noises that the car is making. Do
you hear that? What is that squeaky clunking grinding noise?

One of the reasons we don't like it is because we would rather ignore the noise
and just sort of hope it goes away. Because if it doesn't go away, we've got to
do something about it. We've got to get the car into the shop or we've got to
open the hood and get under there and fix it.

If you admit the noise is there, it means you have to do something about it. If
you ignore the noise and there's something really wrong, that means that the
bill is always worse in the end. Your work is always worse in the end.

And in one sense, the noise that we're talking about from your car compared to
these signs of the second coming. You hear these sounds. Something isn't quite
right.

We've heard this for 2,000 years. Something's not quite right in this world. And
you're right.

That's why God's going to create a new heaven and a new earth. That's why Jesus
is going to come again. So there are signs, the beginning of birth pains that
have been happening for 2,000 years.

The second type of sign are the signs that precede the end. Right before the
end, there are going to be signs that tell all true believers that the end is
right around the corner. These signs do not tell us exactly when Jesus is going
to return.

We're going to see in a minute that Jesus says you can't know exactly the hour
he's going to return. But they tell us that it's getting close. I compare it to
when you go to a movie theater.

When the lights dim, you know that the movie is just about to begin. There might
be a preview or two or add or two first, but you know that the time is close.
And in one sense, these signs at the end are a worsening of the signs that we
looked at earlier.

That's why only true believers are going to be able to see it. These will seem
the same, but you'll be able to tell things are getting much worse. People will
turn away from the faith.

Evil will increase. People will make fun of the faith. False teachers will be
increasingly popular.

As you look at these signs, could any of this affect you or me in a personal
way? Of course. And we need to be ready for that.

Determine now that even as these things happen, they will not make you think
that God has abandoned you. It will help you to see He's just bringing this
world to a close. He's allowing sin to have its free rein in some places.

Why? Why does He do that? He allows it to happen.

One of the reasons I believe is so that He can make people's choice more and
more and more clear. As He allows evil to be seen more clearly for what it is,
I've got a clear choice. Am I going to accept Jesus?

Or am I going to live with this evil? I cannot imagine Jesus returning with even
one person sitting on the fence as to their salvation. So in the end, He's going
to allow some of these things to become clear and the world's going to separate
very clearly into two camps.

Those who've trusted in Jesus, already chosen, and those who've chosen very
clearly, I'm never going to trust in Jesus. So there are these signs, these
increasing signs that precede the end. And then number three, the third type of
sign is the signs that accompany the end.

And Jesus talks about this in verse 29. Immediately after the distress of those
days, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light and the
stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. When the
stars fall out of the sky, it's pretty good indication that something is very
wrong with this creation.

I can't trust in this creation. With our car illustration, this is the engine
falling out of the car. I've got to do something now.

By this time, everyone will know that the end is near. These are extremely
dramatic times. Now, there's a difficult saying here because Jesus says in verse
29, immediately after the distress of those days.

Now, is He talking about the distress of those days at the fall of Jerusalem in
70 A. D. ?

Well, obviously not because it was not immediately after. Matthew here says
immediately after the distress of those days. Luke says here after the time of
the Gentiles.

Mark says after these times. When you look at this, you have to ask, what is
Jesus talking about here? And this is one of the places where God's Word keeps
us humble, I think.

That there's more than one way to see what Jesus has to say, what Jesus has to
teach here. But for those who would say somehow that it has to do with the fall
of Jerusalem, I believe we're missing the point. It's very clear that these
dramatic signs are going to happen at the end of time.

It says Jesus taught it. Jesus revealed it in the revelation. And so this
distress is going to come upon us immediately after the distress, I believe, of
those signs that are preceding the end time events.

Those signs of worsening, worsening, worsening that some of you may be even
seeing now. In one sense, you have to approach this with humble confidence. You
have to have the humility not to make your predictions about what Jesus is
saying here too precise, but the confidence to see that there are signs here for
us to see.

And there are some things that you and I, when we try to understand the second
coming, we don't clearly understand yet. It will be clear the moment that Jesus
reveals it. But don't let that keep you.

Don't let that fact that you're not clear about some of the things keep you from
confidently knowing that he's coming again and confidently knowing that he does
put the signs into our hearts. Hope is on the horizon. Jesus is coming again to
set everything right.

And I know some people, when they look at the second coming of Jesus, and they
think that he's coming again, everything's going to change. Even some believers
I talked to, it's a scary thing for them. They don't feel hope, they feel fear.

Because change creates fear in many of us. But when this day comes and we see
the evil that's in the world, and the fact that Jesus is going to change it all,
we're going to be overwhelmed by nothing but hope. Whenever you look at the
truth of the second coming, the truth of the end of the times, whenever you feel
hope, you know you have biblical feelings, feelings that are taught by Jesus.

Whenever you feel worry and anxiety, you know that that's coming from the world
that's around you. This world doesn't want to let go. This world wants to last.

And you and I can sense that world philosophy, but we got to let that go. And
instead hang on to the hope of eternity, the hope that only Jesus can bring.
When you think about the end of time, God wants you to have incredible hope.

Because as a follower of Jesus, he's going to set everything right. There are
going to be no more tears. There's going to be no more pain.

That is what we're looking forward to. All we know now is what we know now. But
we look forward to what's going to be then.

We look forward to this hope. And we're going to talk about that tomorrow as we
talk about the visible return of Jesus. For today, as we pray together, I'd like
to pray for wisdom with these signs.

Jesus, we come to you and we ask. You told us about these signs. We ask that
you'd give us wisdom as your followers.

Help us to see the signs. And as we see them, help us to be aware that this
world is not all there is. Not to put our hope in this world.

We want to invest our hope in you. We want to invest our lives in you. So let
the signs tell us where our hope should not be placed, not in this world.

But let them also tell us, remind us where our hope should be placed. Give us
the faith today to place our hope in you, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.