Hey, podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. Now here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Thanks to the horrific attack on Israel. I've written a brand new book called Are We Living in the End Times?
Go to ptv.org to order your copy. Today on Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. In light of the war in Israel, many Christians are wondering if we could be living in the end times.
Well, to answer that question, it's imperative that we understand Bible prophecy. And today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress outlines the key events described in Scripture that will sound the alarm that the end is near. Well, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Before we get started with today's important message, I'd like to make sure that you're receiving one of our most popular resources. Did you realize that Pathway to Victory publishes a magazine? I hope you're taking advantage of this practical resource. Pathway magazine will give you exclusive behind the scenes information about Pathway to Victory. More importantly, Pathway magazine contains daily devotional material that I've written for you, plus a variety of articles pertaining to your walk with God. Let me send you your first complimentary copy of Pathway magazine.
To reserve your first edition, just follow the simple instructions at ptv.org. The eyes of the world have been laser focused on Israel ever since the wicked attack occurred by Hamas. I'm sure that you have joined me in praying for our friends in the Middle East. Well, in light of these tragic events, I prepared and delivered an urgent series of messages that we are now featuring on Pathway to Victory. Plus, we fast tracked the publication of a book that answers the common question, are we living in the end times? I want to send a copy of this important book to your home right away because it answers seven pertinent questions about Bible prophecy and the end times.
I'd be pleased to send one to you when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now, let's get started with today's message. Our primary Bible passage today is Matthew chapters 24 to 25.
If you missed any portion of yesterday's program, we'll begin my message with a helpful review. And I titled today's message, What Events Will Signal the End Times? Let's look at these five headlines that will characterize the end times. Turn to Matthew chapter 24. Verses one and two tell us that Jesus and the disciples were walking through the massive temple and Jesus made the statement, one day this temple is going to be destroyed.
There's not one stone that will be left unturned. Well, that disturbed the disciples. They walked across the Kidron Valley with him and they sat on the Mount of Olives and they said, Lord, about that temple thing. Verse three, tell us when will these things happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And in verse four, Jesus said, it's none of your business. Just work on your prayer life and share the gospel and leave the end times events to me.
You don't need to know that stuff. Is that what he said? No, he said, I want you to know what the signs are. First of all, he mentions spiritual deception. Verses four and five, and Jesus answered and said to them, see to it that no one misleads you, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ and will mislead many.
One spiritual deception is people will say they're the Christ, but that's not the only spiritual deception. Listen to 1 Timothy 4.1, but the Spirit explicitly says that in the end times, latter times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. There'll be a rise in occultism and the Satan worship, and we're seeing that right now.
Did you read this week that there are three elementary schools in Connecticut that are now hosting after school Satan clubs? That is one predictor of the end times, but all of that is to a forerunner to the final deception. It'll occur during the tribulation. 2 Thessalonians 2, 9 and 10.
The one, that is Antichrist, whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. He's going to deceive people with power and signs, and I just noticed this this week for the first time, and false wonders. Things that look to be true, but aren't true. Government officials right now are very concerned about the ability to produce videos that look real.
They look like the real thing, but they're fake. There's going to be all kind of havoc caused by these kinds of deceptions. There'll be spiritual deceptions.
Secondly, international conflict. Look at verses 6 and 7, you'll be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you're not frightened, for those things must take place, but it's not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. Yes, there are wars and rumors of wars, but it's not the end yet, but it's moving toward the end. Everything is moving to that one final world confrontation on the plane of Megiddo in Israel. The war we call Armageddon. By the way, Armageddon is not just mentioned once in the Bible. It's mentioned repeatedly in the Old and New Testaments.
Revelation chapter 16 verses 12 to 16 contemplate the war of Armageddon. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east, that 200 million man army. I just point out the Euphrates was the mighty river in biblical times. It brought life to the entire Middle East. The thought of the Euphrates back then drying up would be like thinking about the entire Mississippi River drying up completely, or the Atlantic Ocean drying up.
It was an unthinkable today. Just last night I was reading about ecologists who are concerned about the rapid evaporation that is happening of the Euphrates River. By this pace it will be completely dried up by 2040, and it's just something that we're starting to see happen, but God's going to dry it up in the end times to prepare for Armageddon. Look at verse 23, and I John, verse 13, and I John saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, that is the antichrist, or Satan, and out of the mouth of the beast, the antichrist, and the false prophet, three unclean spirits, for they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the almighty. Demons will be used to lure these kings into the plane of Megiddo, but it is God who is ultimately doing that. Now look at verse 16, and they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har Megiddin.
Now I have people ask me this all the time. They say, Pastor, what do you think of the Preterist view of Revelation? It's the idea that, yes, these prophecies were written, but they've already been fulfilled in ancient history.
What do you say to that? I say, that's partially true. These prophecies for the most part had an immediate partial fulfillment, but their complete fulfillment has not yet occurred, and it won't until the end times. For example, can you tell me when it is that the Euphrates River dried completely up? That hasn't happened yet. When has there been a 200 million man army coming from the east? That hasn't happened yet. And when in the world in history did Jesus Christ return to the Mount of Olives and split it in two?
Did that happen and I just missed it in the news? No, those things have not yet happened. There is plenty found in Daniel in Revelation that is yet to come. Remember when Napoleon looked out over the plane of Megiddo in Israel? He said, this is the most natural battlefield in all of the world. It's going to be the scene of the great world conflict.
Jesus said, sign one of spiritual deception. Secondly, international conflict. Thirdly, natural disasters. In various places, verse 7, there will be famines and earthquakes. We see those all the time, thousands being killed through famines and earthquakes. But the biggest earthquake and famine is yet to come.
In Revelation 16 3, the second bowl judgment says that the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became blood like that of a dead man. And every living thing in the sea died. One thing that's going to happen, one natural disaster is the destruction of every species of marine life. Can you imagine what that will do to the earth's ecosystem when every living thing in the oceans die?
They will die and it won't be because of plastic straws. It won't be because of global warming. It will be because God does it.
God does it. He pours out his third judgment in verses 4 to 7 of Revelation 16. A third judgment is the destruction of all fresh water. Look at Revelation 16 4, then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters and they became blood. Man can only live 40 days without food, but only three days without water.
And yet that is what will happen. In verses 8 and 9, the fourth bowl judgment will be an increase in the intensity of the sun. Verse 8, the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. What explains this growing intensity of the sun? Perhaps God alters the tilt of the earth's axis. Perhaps the protective ozone layer that guards us against dangerous rays from the sun, perhaps that will be completely destroyed.
If that's the case, it won't be because we use too much hair spray. It will be because God has destroyed it and unleashed that judgment upon mankind. There will also be earthquakes. Jesus talked about earthquakes. The mother of all earthquakes is yet to come in Revelation 16 verse 17. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air.
Interesting. He poured it upon the air and a loud voice came out of the temple saying, it is done and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. Could John be describing a nuclear holocaust, talking about the earth being burned up in the air?
How else would somebody living in the first century describe something that was peculiar to our century, nuclear weapons? Whatever this is, it results in such a great earthquake, verse 18, such has never been seen since man came to be upon the earth. So great an earthquake was it and so mighty that the great city Jerusalem was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell.
Again, when has that happened in history? How does the Preterist explain this? This is something yet to come. Now, in Jesus' other sermon that was shorter than this sermon that he preached in Luke 21, Jesus added a sign to natural disasters beyond earthquakes and famines. He said pestilences. Jesus said the end times will contain pestilences. Now, I have to confess to you, when I used to read that, I thought he was talking about locusts and boll weevils.
That's not what the word means. Pestilence means plague, disease. There'll be an increase in worldwide diseases. We saw a hundred years ago the Spanish flu killing millions of people. Then there was Ebola. There was COVID-19. But the biggest one is yet to come. I just came across this headline this week.
Now, listen to this. Next pandemic deemed the big one could be the most contagious and deadliest disease known to humanity, scientists warned. The article goes on to describe how a family of viruses are right now simmering in the background, waiting to unleash the most contagious and deadliest diseases known to humanity. All of these are signs, signals of the end times. Fourth, the persecution of Christians, Jesus said, will indicate his return is soon.
Then they will deliver you to tribulation and they will kill you and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. Now, there has been worldwide persecution of Christians from the very beginning, and it's increased and increased in frequency and in density. Did you know there were more Christian martyrs in the 20th century than in all other centuries combined?
And it's looking to be the same way in the 21st century. We are not aware of that as American Christians because we don't feel that kind of literal, physical persecution. There are other kinds of persecution we experience, not that kind yet, but it is coming. Jesus said nobody will be able to escape it. And finally, he gave the sign of widespread apostasy. Look at verses 10 to 12 of Matthew 24. At that time, many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many because lawlessness is increased. Most people's love will grow cold.
Now, think about it. To fall from faith to unfaith means that you have to have some kind of faith to begin with. Atheists can never fall into apostasy. They can't fall from something to apostasy. They're already in unfaith.
You can't fall from unfaith to unfaith. He's talking about people here who will give the appearance of being Christians. They will proclaim that they are Christians, but they're fake Christians, as evidenced by the fact they fall away.
And you see that all across America today. Many churches that claim to be Bible-based evangelical churches, they're giving up their belief in the basic doctrines of the Christian faith, the blood atonement of Jesus for our sins, the deity of Christ, the inspiration and inerrancy of every word in this book, the exclusivity of Jesus for salvation. Nearly 60% of evangelical Christians believe that there's more than one way to heaven other than faith in Jesus Christ. That is apostasy. Are these people losing their salvation?
Of course not. It just proves they never were saved to begin with. And John says they went out from us because they were not of us, for had they been of us, they wouldn't have gone out from us. There'll be widespread apostasy in the last days. So what are we supposed to do? Some Christians say, well, we need to have these massive prayer meetings and pray for a great revival. Pray for a great revival.
That's fine, and I don't belittle anybody who sincerely wants to do that. You pray all you want to. But there's going to be no great revival before the rapture.
There's not. There's going to be an apostasy, a falling away. That doesn't mean we're to be silent or inactive, but don't expect a great worldwide revival.
There's not going to be one, Jesus said, before the rapture. Now, interestingly, in the tribulation, in the end times, there is going to be a worldwide revival. 144,000 Jewish missionaries are going to be saved and sealed and preach the gospel. Revelation 7 says they'll be the biggest revival the world has ever seen. Interestingly, people will pay to be saved in that time.
They'll have to pay with their lives. But don't expect a worldwide revival right now. But that doesn't mean we're not to work. What should be our response in light of these things that are coming? Let me say a word corporately as a church, what we're supposed to do.
Jesus said in John 9 four, work while it is still day, for the night is coming when nobody can work. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have a limited time to share the gospel with people before Christ comes back. Let's take advantage of those opportunities. Let's do everything we can to get the gospel to as many people as possible as quickly as possible.
You can clap if you want to on that. That is our goal. But there's an individual response to this truth of Christ's soon coming. And you find it in Revelation 16 verse 15. John is outlying all of the events, getting ready for Armageddon, the demons luring, the kings of the earth to that place called Armageddon. And then in your Bible, this statement is in parenthesis in verse 15. It's a parenthetical thought that comes from Jesus himself that seems to interrupt what John is talking about, but really it's the greatest application you could ever come up with. Jesus said, behold, I am coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. In December of 1992, our family was called to Wichita Falls to pastor the church there. It was December of 1992, and our housing situation wasn't worked out yet, so the church put us up in the local Sheraton Hotel. One night we were fast asleep, freezing outside, when all of a sudden in the middle of the night, the fire alarm sounded. And the announcer came over, the speaker, and said, everybody needs to evacuate as quickly as possible.
A fire has been reported. So I mean, we scrammed out of there and got out of the hotel, stood on the parking lot for what seemed like eternity. And they finally, after about 30 minutes, explained it was a false alarm. I was standing there freezing to death in my pajamas. And I remember being so ashamed, the new pastor of the First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls standing in the parking lot in his pajamas.
I was embarrassed until I looked around and saw that a lot of people got out with a lot less than their pajamas and had a lot more reason to be embarrassed. Ladies and gentlemen, there's a time coming when there's going to be a real alarm. For our future generation, it will be an alarm signaling the second coming of Jesus.
For this present generation, it'll be the rapture of the church or even our own individual death. But an alarm is coming. If you wait until the alarm comes to get dressed, you won't have time.
You've waited too long. You have to already be dressed when that alarm comes. What do you mean, pastor? Be dressed. There's only one garment you can put on that will guarantee you're not ashamed that the Lord's coming or when you meet God. And that garment is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. His perfection, His goodness, His forgiveness. If you try to face God in your own righteousness, goodness, you're going to be ashamed.
You're going to be sadly disappointed. Jesus is saying, make sure you're properly dressed. Don't wait until some future time. Don't wait until the alarm sounds. Put on that garment of righteousness right now.
If I were going to choose a theme song for this series, Living in the End Times, it would be the song I started a couple of weeks ago. When He Shall Come. Not if He should come. When He shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in Him be found. Dressed in His righteousness alone.
Thoughtless to stand before the throne. Sing it with me. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.
All other ground is sinking sand. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly. My hope is that today's message has helped you understand the key events on God's timetable that signal the end times. And bear in mind, I've written a brand new book that provides more information about your future. It's already a bestseller and called Are We Living in the End Times? and has biblical answers to seven questions about the future. In my book, I tackle questions such as what role does Israel play in the end times?
And what's the difference between the rapture and the second coming in the end times? My goal in writing this book is to untangle the sometimes confusing aspects of biblical prophecy and to equip you with information that helps you prepare for the return of Jesus Christ. For just a few more days, you're invited to request your copy of my book, Are We Living in the End Times? All that's required is that you give a generous gift in the amount of your choosing to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Lately, you've heard me talk about the value of our Pathway partners. These friends of Pathway to Victory have agreed to give a gift every single month. Well, behind the scenes, we've been asking God to provide Pathway to Victory with 1,200 new Pathway partners this month. Do you sense God leading you to join us in this worthy mission to boldly proclaim the gospel?
Automating your monthly giving is quite simple. You can become a Pathway partner and discover all the exclusive benefits that become yours for doing so by going to ptv.org or just follow the simple instructions that David will provide right now. David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. You're invited to request a copy of the brand-new book by Dr. Jeffress, Are We Living in the End Times? That's when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory or when you give your first gift as a Pathway partner. Just call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org. And when you give an especially generous gift of $75 or more, we'll also include the complete Are We Living in the End Times teaching series on audio and video discs.
Plus, we'll include a fascinating reference book called The End Times Illustrated. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go to ptv.org. Now, if you'd prefer to write, here's that mailing address, P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. One more time, that's P.O.
Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins inviting you back Friday for the message, What Are the Major Events of the End Times? right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Even though we don't know the date when Jesus will return, we need to have our finger on the pulse of what's happening today. So, in response to the war in Israel, Dr. Robert Jeffress has written a brand new book. It's called Are We Living in the End Times?
In light of increasing chaos, division, and warfare in our world, this really is a fair question. Request your copy of Are We Living in the End Times by going to ptv.org. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click on the donate button or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
