What Are the Signs of the End Times? Matthew 24 Explained

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Well as your financial help, because after all, this all does take money. But I said from the beginning, I'll never ask for it, I'm not going to plead for it. But the Lord has been providing, and I want everyone to know in my classes as well as out in television, how much we do thank the Lord for that. Always remember that all the programs are available on videotape, and now we have book number 5 and 6 ready to mail. So if you'll just call us or write to us, we'll make all that information available to you. Now for those of you here in the studio, let's go right back where we left off to Matthew 24. And we had just shown that Jesus had left the temple area, probably went across Kidron Valley, and as they got up to the Mount of Olives, they look back and then Jesus says to the twelve, You see all these things? They're all going to be destroyed. It's all going to be taken down, one stone after another. And then verse 3, now we know definitely they're on the Mount of Olives. As He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately. In other words, the press of the crowd is no longer with them. I think it's pretty much just Jesus and the twelve alone. And now the twelve say, Now that's the question that opens up prophecy. Prophecy is always looking at what's coming down the pipe. And so the twelve are asking the same thing. Now what's going to be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age? Now the thing we have to understand is that all through the Old Testament, I've put this on the board before, but maybe I'll put it on again. The Old Testament rabbis, and those who were involved in the study of the prophets, they understood the two aspects of a coming Messiah. In fact I read not too long ago, and I've never read this before, that some of the rabbis actually thought there would be two Messiahs. One who would fulfill the promise of being the King, and setting up the Kingdom. And then the parallel thought, as I've said before, all the way through the Old Testament, was this idea of a suffering Savior. Now the word Savior, of course, is Jehoshua, and out of that name Jehoshua is where we get the name Jesus, because He shall save the people from their sin. So what they really thought, some of them, was that there would be a Messiah to fulfill this, and a Messiah to fulfill this. Now I think most of you have probably heard the illustration, I think I've even used it, perhaps even on the program, that these Jewish rabbis and scholars, they were looking at these prophecies of a coming King and a Kingdom, but also a coming Savior, but they couldn't see any period of time between them. And as you would approach a mountain range, from one direction or another, and if perchance the mountain range in the most further distance would be the highest, as you would approach you couldn't tell, but that they were all part of one range. I think you've probably experienced that, I know we have. And that's the way they saw a lot of these things. They saw the one aspect of the prophecy, they saw the other, but they couldn't differentiate that there would be 2,000 years of time between them. And that's why I've said all the time they couldn't, because God hadn't revealed that there was going to be almost 2,000 years between His first advent and His second, which of course now we know there was. That from His appearance as first and foremost to be the King and to offer the Kingdom, He ends up being the suffering Savior. And now of course there has been 1 ,900 and some years between the fulfillment of this one, and now this one is still future. But see they couldn't reckon that. In fact I think maybe we've looked at, and I can't always remember what I've used here on television and what I've used in my classes. Keep your hand here in Matthew, and go all the way back to the little letter of Peter, his little epistles clear back at the end of your New Testament. I Peter 1, I kind of think I referred to them some time ago, but again I guess it doesn't hurt to repeat, because I know I haven't done it more than once. Here in I Peter 1, dropping in at verse 10, where Peter writes, "...of which salvation the prophets," see that's the Old Testament writers, "...of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you." Now that's what prophecy is remember, they were telling of what was coming out in the future. "...but they were also searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them, as they wrote," by inspiration remember, that as these Old Testaments wrote by inspiration. Do you remember what Daniel's response was at the end of his book? What did Daniel say? Lord what's the meaning of all this? And what was the Lord's answer? Shut up the book Daniel, it's not for you to know. But when we come to the end of the time, they'll know. And the same way with these prophets as they wrote, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all the rest of them. "...they searched of what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it," that is the Spirit, "...testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow." Now I think the glory that is spoken of here is when He would set up His Kingdom. Now of course we understand from our New Testament record of His death, burial, and resurrection that He was really glorified when He defeated Satan there at the cross. But here I think it's referring to the glory of His Kingdom that would be coming, and they couldn't put it all together. Then verse 12. "...unto whom it was revealed," that is to these prophets, "...that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them who have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into." In other words the angelic host did not even comprehend all these things. So what this portion of Scripture is really saying is that all these Old Testament prophets had an idea of all these events that would be tied to both of these. The coming of the King, and setting up of His Kingdom, but also that there had to be a suffering Savior to pay the penalty of sin. But they couldn't put the whole thing together. And of course God didn't expect them to. They weren't supposed to. So now then, the disciples are still asking the same question. Well, what's going to be the sign of your coming and fulfilling all these things? And the end of the age. Now then verse 4. "...Jesus answered that question, and he said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ." Now we always have to remember, what's the other definition or the other word for Christ? What's Messiah, or the Anointed? So He says, many will come claiming to be the Messiah. And they're going to deceive many. "...And you shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars. But see that you be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass." But it's not the end yet. Now remember when we were back in our study of Revelation, I like to tie the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in Revelation chapter 6, almost one by one, with the events that Jesus lays out here. In other words, the first horse that appears with a bow and no arrows, and He comes to take peace from the earth, this is the wars, the rumors of wars that Jesus is talking here. And then you remember in the next horseman that comes on the scene in Revelation chapter 6, there we do have war, the red horse. And that of course is in a correlation with verse 7 here. "...For nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom." And then you remember the third horseman of Revelation 6 was the pale horse, the pale horse indicating famine, inflation. Well, as a result then of all these wars amongst the nations that Jesus is speaking of, there will indeed be a great dent in the food supply and distribution, and the world is going to end up in tremendous inflation, tremendous food rationing because of the massive destruction, and then earthquakes in diverse places. Now I think those of you who have been following Biblical current events as well as secular, there is no argument that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of earthquakes ever since about 1970. Beginning with about that period in time, they have been just literally mushrooming, multiplying year by year, so that by now I wouldn't even venture a guess of what the percentage increase would be of earthquakes over the average back in the 60's and 70's. But it's a tremendous amount. Now you want to remember our news has gotten to the place where they don't even record most of these things now because they're so mundane. But there are earthquakes happening some place on the earth almost every day. And this is what Jesus was talking about. And then in verse 8, He uses the language all these, all these events, and all these various phenomena that are taking place on the earth are just the, what's the next word? Beginning. They're just the beginning. They're not the end, they're the beginning of sorrows, and a better word for that if you have another translation is travail, or earth pangs. And so all of this is just showing that the earth is now approaching the day of her delivery. Now it's just in the same language of a child being delivered from its mother. So also the earth is going to be delivered of the curse. Now we usually teach that of course in relationship with, maybe we better go back and look at it. It's been a few weeks now since we've been in Revelation, and I'll tell you what. You could tell from our mail, from our phone calls, as soon as we ended Revelation it just sort of dropped off. But everybody just loves the Book of Revelation. You know I noticed that in my classes years ago already, I told my class people, I said, you know, I can't quite understand it that everybody just loves to have me teach Revelation or Genesis. Oh I mean we can just fill the rooms up on those two books. But as soon as you get into Romans, and Ephesians, and Philippians, the interest just sort of drops. And it shouldn't be that way. But you see I'm seeing that people love to review what happened 5,000 or 6 ,000 years ago, because that's pretty removed. They love to talk about what's somewhere out there in the future, that they can't put their hand on, because that's way out in the future. But the here and the now, they really don't want to live in that. And I guess that's what makes the movie business what it is. See why do people go to the movies? They want to remove themselves from reality. And they want to go into a world of make-believe. Well it's not quite that extreme with Bible teaching, but I can sense that. Oh they love to have me teach what took place back there in the beginning. They love to have me teach what's out in front. But to get them down into the nitty gritty of what we need today and tomorrow and next week, it's pretty hard. Now personally, I can't hardly wait to get to the Book of Romans. Now it will be a long time, because we still have to go through the whole Book of Acts, and those of you who have heard me teach Acts know it will take a while. But that is only because we have to have the Book of Acts before the Book of Romans is going to make sense. But I just love to teach Romans. Because it is the here and the now. Romans tells us what you and I need today in this particular point in time. But anyway, Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. Revelation 5. This is where John sees a scene in Heaven that is just almost disturbing. Here God the Father verse 1 of chapter 5. In the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back side, and then sealed with seven seals. Now I always bring it out that this scroll is the mortgage. It's the mortgage that Satan has on planet earth. And he picked it up of course when Adam fell. When Adam lost his dominion, Satan picked it up, and he's been the God of this world ever since. The world lieth in the lap of the wicked one is one statement. Another one I think Jesus Himself said it, that He is the God of this world. Well anyway, God is now holding this mortgage ready to be paid off, but Satan is the real holder of it. He's got the mortgage on the planet. And John wept, because evidently there was no one in Heaven, certainly not on earth, that could pay off this awful mortgage. Verse 4 is where he said it. I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open or to read the book, or to look thereon. And then verse 5. One of the elders said unto me, Weep not, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he hath prevailed to open the book, or the scroll, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and of course it was the Lamb, it's the Christ, it's the Son that God had sent forth into all the earth. Verse 7. He, God the Son, qualified now because of what He had accomplished at Calvary. He came, and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne. And then verse 9, I'm just sort of hitting the highlights here. They sang a new song. The heavenly host. Thou, speaking of the Son, art worthy to take the scroll, and to open the seals thereof, for you were slain. And you have redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred tongue, people, and nation, made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. So anyway, God the Son then, takes this mortgage and He agrees to pay it off in order to lift the planet, or to deliver the planet of the curse. Now I haven't got time in this program, but you see again that goes back into the Israeli history of how they would redeem and how they would gain back title to Lamb that they had almost lost by default. And it had to be a next of kin, remember. It had to be someone who was capable, had what it took, and willing. Now you see Jesus is the only one in all of eternity that could fulfill those requirements for this mortgage, because He was the next of kin, He's the Son of God, He certainly had the power and all the attributes to carry it out, and He is willing to do it. And so He becomes then the great payer of this mortgage that Satan is holding. So then if you come back to Matthew 24, this beginning of sorrows is really just the beginning of the birth pangs that is coming on the earth as a prelude to the delivery from the curse. Always remember because that's the language the Scripture uses, that the earth is going to be delivered from the power of Satan and the curse. But these tribulation events are part of the what shall I call it? These are going to be the things in trade that God will use to pay Satan off in full. Verse 9. Then, in other words, once this tribulation begins this last seven years of Daniel chapter 9, when these last seven years begin, then they shall deliver you. Now remember He's talking to what people? To Jews. So it's the Jews again that are going to come under the particular wrath of this period of time. Israel has some horrible days ahead of her. And they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, they shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations. Now if we think anti-semitism is bad now or has been bad, it's nothing like it's going to be. It's going to turn worse. And then verse 10. Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. In other words, I think even within the Jewish family, children are going to report on their parents. Parents will report on their children as just a system of escaping the wrath that's falling upon them as a nation of people. And then verse 11. And many false prophets. Oh how the Scripture is constantly warning of the false prophets. Not only just in the tribulation, but even during the church age. See, Christianity had no more than just begun. Paul had no more than just established a few churches. And what pops up? False teachings. This is why he had to write the little book of Galatians. Because he had no more than gotten these Gentiles out of paganism under the Gospel of Grace, and in come Jewish false teachers. Oh you can't be saved by that. You have to keep the Law. You have to practice circumcision. And so the false teaching has been a ball work against Christianity from day one. And so even here in these tribulation days as all the calamities are falling, and people will be grasping for just something, the false teachers are going to have a heyday. Verse 12. And because iniquity shall abound. Now think about it for a moment. The only deterrent to wickedness in the world today is what people, the believer, the Church, we're the only deterrent. Because let's face it, I've heard sociologists now, and some of the powers that be are beginning to recognize that a society without religion is a society that's doomed. Because religion is the only thing that puts any kind of common sense into regulating behavior of the human being. But, we have to realize that most of the pagan religions of the world are so grossly immoral even in their religious practice that what we think is horrendous taking place now in America. In other words the breakdown of our morality, and the casualness of gross immorality. It's been that way in the Orient for centuries. They didn't think anything of it, they think nothing of prostitution, they think nothing of all these things, because even in spite of their religion you see, it's still just part of their society. Now it has become so frightening to us here in America, because we're coming out of a basic Christian structure, the Judeo-Christian structure at least, and now when we see the falling apart of all this, we're shocked and we should be. But for the rest of the world it's pretty much been that way down through the centuries. But nevertheless for the big part of the Western world if I may use that expression, Christianity has been the break on a falling away of moral principles. It's the Christian who has had to stand in the gap and say, wait a minute, this is wrong. Now you take that all away. You take away every believer. You take away the Holy Spirit and His role as He works today. What have you got left to hold back iniquity? Nothing. Nothing. Now you know I live right down there next to the dam that holds Lake Eufaula. And I've often wondered, especially when you look at the map, and you see the huge miles that Lake Eufaula covers. If someone were to all of a sudden just lift that dam out, what in the world would happen all the way from Whitefield, Oklahoma to the Mississippi River? Well I can just envision a flood of tremendous impact. It would just literally inundate, destroy everything in its path. Now on the higher plane then of behavior and morality, what if you lift the Christian influence out? And there's nothing to hold back the forces of iniquity. What's going to happen? Just what Jesus says. Iniquity is going to abound, and the love of many shall wax cold. They'll just simply lose all perspective of spiritual things. Verse 13. But he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved. Now we've got to be careful. Does enduring save anybody? No. Jesus isn't talking about salvation by virtue of enduring the tribulation. He is just simply saying that if someone has the wherewithal physically, mentally, and every other way to come to the end of the tribulation, then yes, he's going to be spared from all the horrendous things of it. But I do not believe that he's talking here about salvation as we think of. It's just that he's going to survive these horrible events that will be unleashed in that seven year period. And then in verse 14. I think I've got enough time to at least deal with this verse, and it's going to come out just about right. Then we can start the next program with the last half of the tribulation. And that is in verse 14, Jesus is speaking toward the end of His earthly ministry, and as I've been pointing out now for at least the last 8-10 weeks, what Gospel have they been preaching? The Gospel of the Kingdom. And this is exactly what He's referring to when He says, "...and this Gospel of the Kingdom." Now why does He use the word this? Because it's what's contemporary with Him at that time. And so that Gospel of the Kingdom, which He calls this, "...shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." Now who's going to fulfill that? Well the 144,000 Jews as they will circumvent the globe during that seven years of tribulation, not preaching the Gospel of the grace of God, but preaching rather the Gospel of the Kingdom, because the Gospel of the Kingdom says, the King is coming. And indeed He is, in just a little less than seven years. And so many well meaning folk have totally twisted this verse as if we have to get the Gospel to every nation on earth, and then when that's happened, Christ will come. Well that isn't what it means. Not that we aren't to get the Gospel out. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be here. But, it isn't the Gospel of the Kingdom that we're proclaiming, but Jesus said that in this future day that He's talking about, this seven year period, these 144,000 Jews will be preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. And they're going to succeed in touching every nation, tribe, and language before Christ returns. And so that's exactly what this verse is talking about. For it will be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, see how all inclusive this is, and then shall the end come. Or about this program. Write to Les Feldick Ministries Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552 That's Route 1, Box 760, Kinta, Oklahoma, 74552 Through the Bible with Les Feldick is viewer supported, and your gift is appreciated. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time, for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.