After taking a break, for Resurrection Sunday, we now return once again to our verse-by-verse study of Mark's gospel. So will you turn to Mark chapter 13, as we look at part two of a series that I'm doing from this passage of Scripture, entitled "Jesus Prophetic Discourse on the End of the Age." A few thoughts before we read the passage and begin to examine it closely.

It's fascinating in Scripture, how light is used as a metaphor for truth. The Psalmist tells us, for example, in Psalm 119:105, that "Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." And Jesus said in John 8:12, "'I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in darkness but will have the Light of life.'" And indeed, the absence of light is darkness. Likewise, the absence of truth is darkness, spiritually. And intellectually, we all know what it's like to be in the dark, both literally and figuratively. Literally, when you're in the dark, you don't know where you're going. You don't know what's in front of you. And it's dangerous. And frankly, that's how most people live spiritually. In fact, Jesus describes hell in Matthew 8:12 as "'outer darkness; in that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'"And we are witnessing today in our country the sunset of truth, and the onset of darkness; a foretaste of hell, frankly, an eternal existence apart from the presence of God. Unimaginable. To be sure, we're witnessing the self-induced destruction of what was once the most powerful nation in the history of the world. We're watching the wrath of divine abandonment play out as we read, for example, in Romans one. We're now being governed by people who have no fear of God in their eyes, they are corrupt and greedy and violent. Murderers of unborn infants; unimaginably and grossly immoral. I was reading the other day that we now have approximately 50 special days set aside to celebrate the vile perversions of the LGBTQ mafia. Our educators deny God as the Creator and teach our children that we are really nothing more than sophisticated germs, the result of random selection, all part of evolutionary theory. We have been lied to about the health of our economy. We've been lied to about the whole COVID pandemic, and the efficacy of the vaccines and all of those types of things. We're continually being lied to about global warming. We're being fed lies about systemic racism and gender identity, and orientation. We're lied to about the benefits of gender affirming treatments and procedures. We're lied to about illegal immigration and the implications of all of that. And frankly, it reminds me of Hitler's commitment to deceptive propaganda, as stated in Mein Kampf where he said, quote, "The skillful and unrelenting use of propaganda can persuade people that heaven is hell. For the broad mass of the people, and the primitive simplicity of its heart, more readily falls victim to a big lie than a small one." End quote.

Frankly, the whole lie of the woke agenda is more evil than you can even begin to imagine. I'm not going to take time to get into all of it, but it is satanic to its very core. As I have written elsewhere, "An evil cloud of satanic darkness encompasses the world today. The fierce winds of deception are pummeling all that God deems righteous. The very foundations of basic civility and common sense are being shaken. And without question, the Church of Jesus Christ is under siege. Only the most naive, undiscerning and biblically illiterate Christians can deny this. Like never before a violent storm of persecution against authentic Christianity is gaining strength across the globe." And indeed, we've seen the failed policies of the progressive Marxist agenda continue to divide our country; and gullible people are sucked into all that they're trying to do. And ultimately, what they must do is eradicate genuine Biblical Christianity, because that cannot coexist with a socialist state. They must destroy the nuclear family, they must destroy capitalism, and on and on it goes. And sadly, many gullible Christians of all political stripes, even pastors, are falling victim to the Marxist goal of an atheist utopia.

Well, none of this surprises any serious student of the Bible. This is all part of God's judgment on America. The world is being prepared for the rule of the Antichrist. The "man of lawlessness" according to Second Thessalonians two. We know biblically that he will come about eventually, and he will pretend to be the answer for all of man's problems; he will offer himself as Israel's savior, a counterfeit Messiah, that will make a phony treaty with Israel, according to Daniel 9:27. But he will be against Christ and all who belong to him and he will persecute Israel in the middle of Daniel's 70th week and so forth. A lot of these things you've heard discussed in the past. We know that he is going to rise out of a revived Roman Empire, according to Daniel nine, verse 26. He will be what is called "the wicked prince" who will exert his power, essentially through a united Europe. And as we read the biblical record, we see that he will fuse the world into a political collectivism. The scourge of tribalism, as we would see, for example, in the whole jihadist movement, and hyper-nationalism will finally be replaced with a super national utopia, a one world government, one world economy, one world religion. And after all, you must understand that this is the evolutionary vision of the progressives today. As David Larsen puts it, quote, "Human progress for them is linear, automatic and upward, and the accelerating tendencies toward a world religion with the surrender of biblical supernaturalism in favor of a syncretistic plural liberal pluralism." He went on to say, "Under the aegis of the false prophet, religion will join the Antichrist. The super-church is described in Revelation 17 as "Babylon"; She Lords it over the nations of the earth displays great pageantry and sits upon the beast. This ecclesiastical and ecumenical big top will have brief usefulness and serviceability to the world ruler, but her doom is sealed because she is unfaithful and untrue to the Lord. Her spiritual adulteries are infamous."

Folks, this is where the world is heading. Just prior to the pre-kingdom judgments, we're going to see these things being manifested as the prophetic Scriptures tell us; just prior to our Lord's second coming. And we see Matthew chapter 24, and 25, along with Mark 13, and Luke 21, that we just read a few minutes ago, and Revelation six through 19, providing much detail regarding these matters.

And I might also add that these great prophetic truths out of the New Testament must also be viewed through the lens of the Old Testament, especially Ezekiel's prophecy, Daniel's prophecy, Zechariah's prophecy.

Now with this in mind, we come to what's happening here in our text in the first century. You will recall that this is Jesus' final pronouncement of judgment upon apostate Judaism. And this is followed then with a lengthy explanation of what must take place just prior to his return in power and great glory. And we know that this occurs on Wednesday evening of the Passion Week, in the final hours of Jewish rejection. And you will also recall in Matthew 23, there's a record of the conclusion of Jesus's terrifying pronouncement upon Israel and a farewell promise. In verse 36, we read, "'Your house'"--referring to the temple, where he was standing at the time--"'Your house is being left to you desolate.'" Then he added in verse 39, "'I say to you from now on, you shall not see Me until you say, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!"'" Jesus did not say "unless" he said, "until." There's glorious hope there.

So, after his scathing denunciation of their phony religious system, and his ominous prediction of their temple's demise, he concludes with a message of hope, and he quietly withdraws himself from the presence of the multitudes there, on the temple precinct. And obviously, this prediction of judgment upon Israel, animated intense concern with the disciples. Again, they were hoping that he was going to establish his kingdom, right then; that Rome would finally be destroyed. And so they're wondering, "What are you talking about here? What will be the nature and the duration of Israel's desolation? When is this going to happen? And what do you mean 'You shall not see Me until we say, "BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!'" So that's the context here.

Now you will recall the last time we were together, looking at these things, I have given you a little bit of an outline to help you understand Jesus lengthly answer to their question. We're going to look at a little bit more of it here this morning. Let me give you the outline once again. First of all, he speaks of the temple’s demolition; secondly, the signs of the end. Thirdly, the prospect of persecution, then the abomination of desolation, the false Christ and prophets, the coming of the Son of Man, and the warning to be prepared. And this will take us all the way through, beyond where we have just read. And while we do not know the date or the time when the Lord will return, we do know that the stage is being set, even now, as we look at the constellation of prophetic signs.

Now let me read the passage to you in Mark 13, beginning in verse one, "As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to him, 'Teacher, behold, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!' And Jesus said to him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.' As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew were questioning Him privately, 'Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled? 'And Jesus began to say to them, 'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name saying I am He! and will mislead many. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. And these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'"

Now, by way of review, verses one and two, he's going out of the temple. They're looking at this beautiful edifice, and Jesus says, "'You see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.'" So, we examined number one: the temple's demolition. And again, this was an astonishing edifice, a magnificent building, and they are viewing it from the adjacent mountain, the Mount of Olives. Those of you have been there with me, or even on your own, you've been able to see where that would be. The Al Aqsa Mosque is there now, but that's where the temple was. But sadly, the temple had become a symbol, a tragic symbol, of apostate Judaism. And we know that in 70 AD, the Romans came to the Temple Mount, they set fire to the entire thing, and it was so hot the stones crumbled into powder. And the stones that we see there today are just merely the foundation, the retaining stones of the original temple.

And so, if there's not going to be a temple, then that means there's not going to be a Messiah to return to his temple as promised. And that means there's no kingdom, so they're confused. So, in verse three, we read this, "As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew, were questioning Him privately, 'Tell us when will these things be, and what will be the sign when all these things are going to be fulfilled?'" Matthew adds this in Matthew 24, verse three, "'Tell us, when will all these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?'" "Coming"--"parousia." He uses this in the technical sense, in the original language, to describe his appearing, his manifestation at his second coming.

So beginning in verse five, now, Jesus begins to answer their questions in reverse order. And he begins by addressing the signs of his coming, of his "parousia." And in the combined accounts of Mark, or Matthew and Mark, and Luke, Jesus describes six very specific signs called, quote, "birth pangs," as we see in Mark 13, verse eight. And these things are going to appear just before he arrives during the time of the Tribulation. Let me give you those six signs. Number one, false messiah; secondly, nations at war; number three, natural disasters of epic proportions; number four, persecution of tribulation saints; number five, detection of and betrayal by false believers. And then number six, there's going to be a time of mass evangelism. And I might also add that these six signs have undeniable parallels that we see with the seal trumpet and bowl judgments written in the Book of Revelation, which was written in about AD 96. The seal judgments are going to take maybe a few years, the trumpet judgments perhap weeks, and then the bowl judgments, just days and hours.

So we saw the temple's demolition, the last time we were together. Also, we saw a bit of the signs of the end, that would be the second section here. And there's six signs, six birth pangs, of the pre-kingdom judgments. You will recall, we looked at the first one, which was false messiahs; there's going to be great deceivers--false teachers, leading to the worship of the ultimate false messiah, the Antichrist. And that's why Jesus says in verse five, "'See to it that no one misleads you. Many will come in My name, saying, "I am He!" and will mislead many.'" And Jesus repeats this in verses 22 and three, "'For false Christs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.'" Now we all know that false messiahs and false teachers have always existed. They're out there today. In fact, today they multiply like maggots on manure. They're everywhere, especially with the Internet. And they will greatly increase in numbers and in power at the end of the age. And imagine what chaos there will be upon the earth when the church is caught up, when the church is snatched away, according to First Thessalonians four and verse 17. People will be looking for answers; they will be more confused than ever. And of course, that is fertile soil for false messiahs and false teachers to take advantage of people.

And we know that sometime after the rapture of the church, the seal judgments will begin to occur in the first three and a half years, which is in the broad sense called The Tribulation, as we read in Second Thessalonians, one six. And at the beginning of the Tribulation, bear in mind, that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to unleash the first Seal Judgment. We read about that in Revelation six verses one and two, that will be a pseudo peace that will lull the world, including Israel, into a false sense of security and visions of utopia. But it will only be the calm before the storm. And it's fascinating even today, as we watch the social phenomena of group hypnosis, which is often called "mass formation”; we see deceived people believing things that are just utterly absurd. The demonstrably false tenets of critical race theory, the gross immorality of the whole LGBTQ mob, the totalitarian ideologies of Marxism, with the whole woke mafia, and we marvel at man's utter desertion of common sense and critical thinking; while at the same time, employing totalitarian methods to somehow vilify and silence those who differ with them. And this has always been the modus operandi of the liberal elite. This is how they function. They believe that they know what's best, and everyone must do what they say; they must control the populace.

But again, imagine the chaos, imagine the confusion when the church is removed. The Rapture will provide the perfect storm for the arrival of the Antichrist. People are desperate today, looking for answers, imagine what it will be like at that time. Daniel eight, verse 23, gives us a sense of what this will be like. There we read, "A king will arise, insolent and skilled in intrigue. His power will be mighty, but not by his own power, and he will destroy to an extraordinary degree and prosper and perform his will; he will destroy mighty men and the holy people. And through his shrewdness, he will cause deceit to succeed by his influence; and he will magnify himself in his heart, and he will destroy many, while they are at ease. He will even oppose the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without human agency." And Daniel goes on and tells us in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 36, "Then the King will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done." The apostle Paul adds to this in Second Thessalonians two beginning in verse three, "Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come"--referring to the day of the Lord--"unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed as the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God."

So that's a bit of a review of what we looked at the last time and now we move to another prediction here that Jesus gives us, and that is, nations at war. Notice verse seven, "'When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.'" And Matthew adds this in chapter 24, beginning in verse six, "'And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars.'" The grammar here indicates that you're going to constantly be hearing of actual wars and impending wars. And then he goes on to say, "'See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.'" "Telos," in the original language, which speaks of the very end, the ultimate end of the age when conflict will cease. In other words, there's still more to come. That's the point. And again, this is only the beginning of birth pangs. Verse seven, "'For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.'" And of course, we can already see how there is escalating violence in the world today. I was reading from the Geneva Academy, they monitor, right now, more than 110 armed conflicts around the world. They say that some of them have started recently, while others have lasted for more than 50 years. And according to the International Crisis Group, there are 10 conflicts they say that we should watch even in 2024. They say by the way, quote, "More leaders are pursuing their ends militarily. More believe they can get away with it." And the 10 conflicts that they have, are as follows: Gaza, wider Middle East war, Sudan, Ukraine, Russia, Myanmar, Ethiopia, the Sahel. That, by the way, would include six countries in Central Africa; there's a vast semi-arid region in Africa separating the Sahara Desert to the north, and the more tropical savannas to the south; and that place is just exploding right now. And then Haiti, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and of course, US and China. And today, we know that most of the world hates the United States. Pundits and politicians frequently address the growing fears that we have pertaining to Russia and China and North Korea and the Arab Islamic nations; South America that is now flooding our borders and becoming part of us.

But what we especially must bear in mind is what Ezekiel says in Ezekiel 38, and 39. There is a detailed description of a coalition of nations that will come upon Jerusalem come into Israel. Including Russia, along with numerous other Muslim nations, including Iran, Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, regions of Armenia and Turkey. This, of course, speaks of the great battle of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel 38, and 39. And that very well could be the event that sets the first seal into motion. And that battle describes a Russian/Arab alliance of, again, predominantly Muslim nations coming down on Israel from the north and being supernaturally defeated. And there's nothing in that text that would rule out the conditions, even of the State of Israel prior to the Hamas attack on October 7. Is it possible that that attack is kind of the beginning of where this is ultimately going to lead in the battle of Gog and Magog? And it has certainly triggered more violence from the north with Hezbollah. And it's galvanized the Islamic nations around the world against Israel, including those nations that are described in Ezekiel 38, verses five and six.

In fact, Israel's devastating ground operations in Gaza, that's going on right now has outraged the Islamic world, including Turkey, along with millions of non-Islamic Marxists in the United States and so forth. And we see antisemitism and anti-Israeli protests growing at an alarming rate. And we know too, that our current president is losing support of his radical left and continuing to back away from helping Israel. I mean, just think about it, what if we back away completely, what if the rapture of the church occurs and so forth. Israel is already vulnerable, but we know that God will continue to protect them at some measure, because ultimately a remnant of them will be saved. Could this be God's way of fulfilling his promise in Ezekiel 38 and verse four, where he says, "'I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army.'" And then we see that he will destroy them on the mountains of Israel. And Russia, as I have, and others have said in the past, could very well fulfill the role of Gog in Ezekiel 38 and 39. And currently, Russia has six of the former Soviet republics to the north of Israel that are now independent Islamic nations, and they're all calling for Israel's annihilation. Russia is getting arms we know from North Korea, getting arms from Iran, getting arms from China, forming alliances with all of them, along with Turkey and Pakistan and Iran and Libya, Syria, Sudan and Ethiopia. But whoever makes up the alliance of nations God causes to come upon Israel, and they will ultimately be destroyed. My point with all of this is to say that we know of some things that are going to happen during that period of time, of nations and kingdoms in conflict, so it's easy to see, with all of the powder kegs in the world today, how all of this could ultimately explode.

And what's interesting is we look at Scripture, if we go to Revelation, chapter five, the first seven verses, we see how God the Father, hands Christ Jesus, a scroll, the title deed to the universe, and it's sealed seven times, which was customary, of Roman laws of that day, to be sealed in that way. And beginning and then in chapter six, we see how Christ begins to open up those seals and look into the scroll. Seven seals, each of which is a specific category of divine judgment, that God will pour out upon the earth prior to the Lord's return, and they will be sequentially discharged upon the earth. I wanted to just, I've written these out for you just so that you have a sense of this, obviously, we're not going to look at all these but just to give you a flavor of it, we see that the Worthy Lamb opens the scroll and the seals are as follows. First, you have the arrival of the Antichrist. And there you have the white horse and then the red horse of war. Thirdly, the black horse of famine; fourthly, the ashen horse of death; sometimes these are called "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse." And that ashen horse we know, kills 1/4 of the Earth's population with the sword, with famine and pestilence and wild beasts. We'll look at that in a moment. And then number five, you have the seal of martyrdom, and then earthquakes.

It's also worth noting that at that point, in the time of the tribulation, the world will know that they are experiencing the wrath of God, and the Lamb, the Lord Jesus. They will know it. Revelation six, beginning of verse 15, tells us "they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of the wrath has come, and who is able to stand?'"

And then you have the seventh seal, which unleashes the seven trumpets, and again, these parallel the birth pangs that Jesus describes in the gospels, and then you have the trumpet judgments. The first 1/3 of the earth trees and grass are burned up, then 1/3 of the sea creatures die and the ships are destroyed, then 1/3 of the waters are polluted and many die. 1/3 of the sun, moon and stars are dark and locusts, demons are released to torment people. Four bound demons are released to kill 1/3 of humanity that's left at that point. And then Christ's kingdom reign is proclaimed. And then you have the bowl judgments that will come even more quickly. Painful sores come on people. The sea becomes like blood and everything in the sea dies; the rivers and springs of water are turned to blood. The sun scorches people with fire and heat; darkness and intense pain afflict humanity; the Euphrates River is dried up to prepare the way for kings from the east. Then you have severe earthquakes that split the great city into three parts; cities fall, and severe hail falls from heaven.

And Daniel's prophecy gives us further insight into these types of conflicts of that day. Again, remember in Daniel 9:27, Israel makes a covenant with the Antichrist, he deceives them with his promises to protect them, and in Daniel 7:24, he will rule a massive kingdom that will basically comprise a Roman Empire, a Western confederacy of a united Europe that Daniel describes as a 10-nation empire. And we'd been given more insight here in Daniel 11, beginning in verse 40, which by the way, in this prophecy, he juxtaposes both near and far historical events, which is common in the prophetic literature. The near prophecies were fulfilled by the Persian kingdom and the reign of Greece through Antiochus Epiphanes, and then the future prophecies are concerning the Antichrist. And there Daniel says, "'At the end of time, the king of the South will collide with the Antichrist, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots.'" This is likely a Russian and Arab Alliance. He goes on to speak of how they will be "'with horsemen and many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them and pass through. He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand: Edom, Moab and the foremost of the sons of Ammon. Then he will stretch out his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape. But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at his heels'" Evidently, there is a temporary defeat of these nations, but the the northern and eastern forces, as we study it, will regroup and kindling his wrath, and so he's going to attack them. That's why he goes on to say, "'But rumors from the East and from the North will disturb him.'"

Let me pause there for a moment. In Revelation nine, verses 14 through 16, we read of an eastern army, composed of 200 million that will destroy a third of the remaining inhabitants of the earth. And it's interesting that today, the Chinese army has an active personnel of 2,035,000. So it gives you some sense of what could be some day. So this will disturb him and "'He will go forth with great wrath to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain.'" In other words, his headquarters is going to be between the Mediterranean Sea and Mount Zion. "'Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.'"

This is also described in Revelation 19, the Battle of Armageddon, the pinnacle of the Day of the Lord, when the Antichrist is defeated, and the Lord Jesus Christ executes all the kings of the earth and the armies. So in summary, this is inconceivable what God predicts, absolutely unimaginable. All of these nations will be destroyed--Russia, to the north, and all of those that are a part of that group, the Confederated Europe to the West, Africa to the South, Asia to the east. They all converge upon tiny, little Israel, which is fascinating. It is the most fought over and most fought on piece of real estate on the planet. They're all going to be destroyed. And the prophet Zechariah tells us in chapter 14, beginning of verse two, that the Lord "will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle." People say, "Where's America in all of this?" It'll be right there. "All of the nations against Jerusalem to battle, the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle." Bottom line, all of these conflicts are going to increase in severity and scope just before the Lord returns. No one, regardless of where they live, will be exempt from these worldwide conflicts. And today, I would submit to you that the stage is being set for these things to eventually explode.

Back to Mark 13 verse seven, "'When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom.'" And again, Matthew 24th at the end of verse six, "'See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place.'" Isn't that a word of encouragement there? It tells us that God is sovereign, that God has a plan, God is in control. And he will be here soon, is the point. He will be here soon. So Jesus describes false messiahs, nations at war, and now thirdly, the next birth pang, natural disasters of epic proportions. Notice at the end of verse eight, "there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'" And Matthew puts it this way in Matthew 24 at the end of verse seven, "'and in various places there will be famines, and earthquakes. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'" Now we have a whole lot more detail, for example, in Revelation six eight; we see Christ breaking the fourth seal of the scroll. And there we read, "I looked, and behold, and ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth." Folks, this is such a macabre scene; a terrifying scene, horrifying beyond imagination. This ashen horse, it's fascinating. Ashen is "chlōros" in the original language. We get chlorophyll and chlorine from that. But it's a pale-yellow green color. The color of sickness; it's the color of a decomposing corpse if you've ever seen that. It's a hideous sight. It's also the blanched appearance of a person that is struck with paralyzing fear.

And of course, global war will inevitably lead to famine, especially if nuclear arms are used. And here John sees Hades--meaning the grave--following this ashen horse mounted by Death. We read of the sword, famine and pestilence, and whenever those are mentioned in Scripture, the context is that this is what will lead to death. Pestilence--"thanatos" in the original language. It's also translated "death." In this context, it encompasses all of the natural disasters, like famines and earthquakes that Jesus has predicted. But many of the diseases, it would include many of the diseases, that inevitably accompany such cataclysmic events like typhus fevers, which is one of the greatest killers throughout history. Typhus is different types of bacteria as I recall from my very brief days in biology. They can be carried by fleas and lice and chiggers. In fact, more casualties in the Civil War were due to disease than battle. So you can imagine what it will be like during that time. The great influenza epidemic of 1918 and 19 killed an estimated 30 million people. And we know historically, that wherever you have corpses and famine, you will have wide scale disasters and disease, described by the term pestilence. And you will have wild beasts. It's interesting the original language--"thērion"--it could refer to any kind of wild carnivore starving for a meal. But the term is also used to translate "birds and insects." It could very well, and probably will, include rats. Imagine the disease born even by mosquitoes. Mayo Clinic estimates that malaria is responsible for killing 2.7 million people annually. There's great fears of bird flu being spread today. Imagine during this time, hospitals will be scarce if not non-existent. Supply of life saving drugs are interrupted. And of course, rats thrive in highly populated areas notorious for spreading disease. You will recall in the 14th century, rats spread the bubonic plague that wiped out 1/4 to 1/3 of Europe. It's called the Black Death. This is horrible. It's inconceivable. And this is just the fourth seal of Revelation eight; the third birth pang of Jesus' prophecy.

You see, by the time the Lamb breaks all the seals, and all the trumpet and bowl judgments are poured out upon the earth, the planet as we know it will cease to exist. I can't even begin to imagine what this place will look alike. And those who refuse to repent, will be in such unimaginable torment that we are told, according to Revelation nine beginning in verse five that they will "seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death flees from them." Revelation 16 verse 10, says they will "gnaw their tongues because of pain."

By the way, nothing of this severity and scope took place in ad 70. Which is one more reason why I reject the argument that this is merely a description of what happened with the Jews and the Romans at that time. And to think Jesus says in Matthew 24, verse eight, "'all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.'"

As we close this morning, I was thinking, how ironic it is--mankind loves to worship himself, exalt himself above God. Mankind loves to worship the planet, rather than the God that created all things. In fact, today, pets and animals have more protection than unborn babies. Isn't it amazing when you think about that? People worship the environment, but not the Creator. But isn't it interesting in the pre-kingdom judgments, God is going to tear down all of those idols, every single one of them, and then they will know that he is Lord. Beloved, we need to all rejoice in the comforting promise that we have, that the apostle Paul records in First Thessalonians five beginning in verse one where we read, let us, who "are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and has a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ." We're not going to be a part of that, I believe the church will be snatched away before that happens.

But certainly today, the world scoffs at the existence of God. If you tell the world that he is the Creator, as I often say, the Sustainer, the Redeemer, and consummate are of all things, they think you are a knuckle dragging Neanderthal that needs to live in a cave. And that would be putting it nicely. People absolutely mock at Christ's saving work on the cross. Isn't it amazing that the President would call for a transgender day of visibility on the day where we celebrate His resurrection. Celebrate these self-loathing people that desperately need Christ. Celebrate people who are damaged and depressed and dysfunctional, delusional; some even being demonized--as we saw with one of the transgender shooters here recently in Nashville. People who despise God so much that they deny his stamp of his image placed on their biological God-given body. I mean this is soul suicide, and we're supposed to celebrate that. This is the mockery of God. And this is what is going to bring about his judgment one day. But people have always mocked his second coming and judgment. Peter tells us in Second Peter three, three, "In the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming?'"

And may I remind you all of Jesus' warning in Matthew 24, beginning in verse 37, he said, "'For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be.'" And what were those days like in days of Noah? Genesis six tells us it tells us that they were days of unmitigated evil and rebellion against God. Moreover, days of granite, indifference and apathy, concerning his judgment upon their sin. I give you the world today. Dear friends, I pray that this doesn't describe your attitude. Because if it does, I would plead with you to put your trust in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ lest you perish in your sin. And for those of us who know and love Christ, may I remind you, dear Christian, we are at war. And we will not bow. So, we need to be vigilant, we need to be alert, we need to be marching on our knees in prayer. We cannot be ashamed of the gospel. We need to unleash it in all of its force and fury, in love and in compassion; that others will come to a saving knowledge of Christ even as we have, solely by his grace. And then we just all need to keep looking. Because Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming again. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for revealing so much to us in your word. While we cannot understand the full implications of everything that you give us in your prophetic word, we we can understand enough to know that things are gonna get much worse before they get better. And that you are a holy God that will pour out his judgment upon the wicked, just as sure as the sun rises in the east. And so therefore, we thank you for your word; may it animate each of our hearts, to live in light of it, as people that are alert, that are sober, as people whose world orbits around the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the glory of his return. Speak to those who are without you today. Give them no rest until they truly, genuinely, come to a place of repentant faith and experience the miracle of the new birth. And bless us now, all of us who know and love you, as we rejoice in all that is ours in Christ, for it's in his name that I pray. Amen.